The new event for pubs and bars

The National Licensed Business Show, the UK’s most exciting and defining event for the licensed trade, returns for its third year to Birmingham’s NEC from September 23-25th, 2008 after a hugely successful 2007 event.

NLBS 2008 is partnered with the Publican having been acquired by the newspaper’s owners CMPi and once again is co-located with Leisure Industry Week – the UK’s largest and longest running trade show and conference event for the sector – and is therefore poised for significant growth yet again next autumn.

On the back of an exhibition floor which had doubled in size, the National Licensed Business Show has established itself as the industry’s most innovative and effective trading platform for the dynamic licensed trade.

The 2007 show drew an attendance of more than 5,900 licensed trade operators from across the traditional on-trade as well as the leisure and entertainment sectors.

According to show manager, Chris Brown: “This year’s show was twice the size of last year’s inaugural event – and twice the success! And the exciting news that NLBS is now under new ownership means further fantastic developments are already being planned next year’s show to the benefit of both exhibitors and visitors.”

NLBS delivers the on-trade PLUS the vibrant leisure and family entertainment market
Co-located with Leisure Industry Week – the annual leisure extravaganza that brings together the public sector as well as commercial operators from the family attractions, licensing and entertainment, and sport sectors - NLBS offered operators a show floor full of products, tips and strategies to help busy food and beverage, facilities and operations managers make the right business decisions.

Willie Clark, Director of Aluline & Bar Olympic enthused: “Having tried and tested numerous exhibitions for the licensed trade we have finally found an event that delivers. Industry suppliers as well as venue owners and purchasing decision makers from venues as diverse as bowling alleys, nightclubs, sports clubs and theatres alongside the core pub sector should now consider NLBS as “the” event to visit every year.”

His views were shared by most exhibitors and on-trade operators who visited the three-day show at Birmingham’s NEC in September, including Richard Lee, On-Trade Customer Insight Manager at Coors Brewers who commented: “NLBS provided us with a great opportunity to see new products and innovations entering the on-trade market, and to hear the latest on-trade perspectives from leading figures within the industry - well worth attending this well-run event.”

Exhibitor Heather McRae of GMSMusic demonstrated the enthusiasm of the stand holders’ opinion: “We’ve met lots of clients and, more importantly, people who seriously wanted to buy."

She continued: “The footfall has been fantastic – there’s hasn’t been five minutes when we’ve not been totally busy. I’ve been to other shows but none where I’ve seen so many genuine potential clients. At previous events I’ve sold three or four systems, but I think I’m on target to sell over 20 here.”

Exhibitor Tony Holman, whose company Crown Awnings participates widely at most industry trade shows, has put NLBS at the top of his list for 2008. “The National Licensed Business Show is by far the most effective exhibition that Crown Awnings does. Whether through meeting existing customers or developing new contacts the return on our investment in the show continues to increase each year”.

NLBS Keynote programme serves up the brightest minds and most important industry issues
NLBS also staged an unmissable series of seminars by star speakers who filled the dedicated education theatre. The programme included industry-leading keynote presentations by David Smith of Diageo UK, Paul Smith of BEDA, Graham Page of AC Nielsen and Peter Wells of the Charles Wells Pub Company, as well as Kevan Mulcahey of TNS, Stephen Thomas of Luminar Leisure and Ian King of NUS Services.

Other keynotes also drew the crowds – by AC Nielsen’s Graham Page, Punch Taverns’ Francis Patton, Enterprise Inns’ Gerry Carroll and Greene King’s David Elliott.

On the shop floor, too, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust-sponsored Wine Tasting Theatre and the Society of Independent Brewers’ (SIBA) Real Ale-Real Profits Pavilion (where participating breweries included Everards, Hook Norton, Wye Valley and Purity Brewing) were both very well patronised throughout the three days.

The Equip Line Live Kitchen also proved the merits of illustrating how food – the correct food – can boost profits, and Equip Line’s Jacki Walker said the kitchen which was full to capacity for each demonstration, and was clearly delighted with the response from operators.

“We’ve been extraordinarily busy and have generated at least 200 leads for our equipment. We’ve had a terrific response to the demonstrations, with the pub lunches and creative catering for kids sessions being the most popular.”

With leading licensed trade suppliers on view – including Everards, E&J Gallo, McCain Foods, Moët Hennessy, Hook Norton Brewery, St Helier Cider and Wye Valley Brewery – the NLBS special feature list also embraced The Pub Garden (in association with Crown Awnings and M + M Timber), the Charles Wells PubCo Recruitment Zone, and all added immense value to the time spent at the NEC by visitors.

Billed as the forward thinking show for future-minded licensed businesses, NLBS’s co-location with LIW cleverly illustrated how food, drink and ‘entertainment’ can be sensibly and profitably integrated into leisure sites, and Natalie Lloyd, Food & Beverage Manager at Thorpe Park, summed up the visitors’ view when she said: “It’s been a very profitable visit; I’ve seen a lot of things that we could use, and I will follow-up on these over the coming weeks.”