Much of ICC 2002 is rebooked

With just over 1600 visitors, how did ICC compare to David Hyde’s Cycle & Leisure Show?

The bald fact is that more people visited Hyde’s show on one day than visited ICC over three days. The 2001 Cycle & Leisure Show got 2026 visitors on its first day, with 4384 visitors in total.

And to say there were mixed reviews of the BA’s Harrogate show would be an understatement.

Whilst some exhibitors rebooked yesterday in order to secure the same stand position and benefit from early-bird discounts, others said they’d definitely not be back.

Some stands wrote good orders; others didn’t. Some of those who didn’t may have had duff products but even some stands packed with sexy kit that normally sells well were disappointed. Dale O’Connor of The Silo said more sales were made by staff back at the office on Monday morning than had made over the whole three days of the show.

And James Huggins of Perception Products, importer of Serotta frames and Speedplay pedals, said the numbers through the door made for very slow trading. There were quality dealers present, but not enough to warrant him re-booking a stand for 2002. With his IBD hat on, Huggins said the way UK trade shows are going it made more sense for UK retailers to head off to one of the international trade shows in the Autumn. Huggins has a soft-spot for Friedrichshafen.

"You can see all the new products in one go," he said.

However, Mike Kowal of Autostrada said he secured enough orders on just the first day of the show to pack up and go home home.

And Simon Watts of siwis.co.uk, present at the show to give daily web seminars and help out on the Bikeforce stand, said:

"It’s a lot like the web. It’s not quantity that counts, it’s quality. And the right dealers were all here."

That’s a sentiment echoed by Russell Merry of Hot Wheels.

"We had over best ever, ever trade show. On Sunday all four of us on the stand wrote orders non-stop from 10.40 to 4.30. One of our best dealers came past four times but couldn’t get on to see us. In the end I had to pass him an order pad and he wrote his own order out."

Russell put this success down to having new product at the show. Hot Wheels bust a gut to bring out 2002 Mongoose product for the show (with first deliveries starting on the first day of the school holidays in July).

And Hot Wheels didn’t just get tons of orders, they got lots of interest from competitors too. Some much bigger suppliers were seen not just sniffing around the Mongoose bikes, but having full-blown product meetings there!

Powabyke also claim ICC was their best ever trade show. The company took orders for 250 electric bikes over the three days, breaking all previous records for Powabyke orders taken at shows. Powabyke also opened up seven new accounts, including Action Bikes which will be stocking all five Powabyke models across all 39 of its stores.

NB

Those companies who rebooked yesterday include:

Raleigh, Universal, Saracen, Concept, Sarda, Electroped, Bronx, Raw, and Basta