Tabletop Trends - Show and Tell: Exclusively! 2024
The dividing line between top end retail and hospitality is getting more and more blurred. Increasingly consumers are looking to have the latest commercial grade gadget they just saw on TV, or the tableware they clocked at their local restaurant, in their own home. Which is why the Exclusively! show, at the Islington Business Design Centre, could be such an interesting event for LET dealers and suppliers keen to find out about trends and new products.
The show is organised by BHETA (the British Home Enhancement Trade Association), the trade association for the DIY, garden, housewares and small electricals sector. In many ways the products on display at Exclusively! are similar to those shown at the LET Forum – kitchen gadgets, light electrical equipment, tableware and the like. Indeed, several manufacturers and suppliers exhibit at both, and ten companies are members of both FEA and BHETA.
FEA’s chief exec, John Cunningham, went along to the 2024 event. “Going round the show, it’s clear that we can learn things here,” he says. “For example, one of the big cross over trends is coffee. Whilst people love getting their favourite speciality coffee on their way to work in the morning, they also want to try to replicate that with ever-more sophisticated in-home coffee machines – basically, light commercial models.
“The crossover is clear, and there’s no doubt that the high -end consumer market offers potential for LET dealers and suppliers. However, it’s not just the products on show that are of interest. The increasing move of the DIY and garden centre sectors into hospitality, with many becoming destinations in their own right, is obviously of interest to any company suppling light equipment and tableware to foodservice operators.”
There were over 130 exhibitors at the show and visitors included buyers from high street heavyweights such as B&Q, Waitrose and Tesco.
This double crossover of product and market is why FEA and BHETA have been keen to get to know one another more closely. While John Cunningham visited Exclusively! in June, Seema Grantham of BHETA came to the FEA Light Equipment & Tableware Forum at Whittlebury Park in May this year. Seema is BHETA’s sector manager for housewares and small electricals, as well as director of sales for the Exclusively! show. She says, “With the reset of lockdown still in all our memories, it is fair to say trends in cooking and dining styles – whether commercial or domestic, in restaurants or at home - have probably never been closer or more mutually influential. It’s something that BHETA embraces and is ever keener to work closely with the FEA as a result.”
If the Exclusively! show is something you’d like to know more about, contact John Cunningham at FEA and he’ll make an introduction (e: john.cunningham@fea.org.uk, t: 07539 413258).
This article is part of Tabletop Trends - FEA's quarterly light equipment and tableware sector newsletter.
Tabletop Trends is produced and distributed by the Foodservice Equipment Association, the UK's largest independent foodservice equipment trade association. All suppliers listed in this article are FEA members. A full list of Light Equipment and Table suppliers can be found on our Meet Our Members section - simply select Light Equipment / Food Prep from the Product Type drop down menu
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