UK Catering Forum

HOTELYMPIA - International Hospitality Exhibition

This exhibition is due to be held at ExCel London from 17th - 21st February 2008.

Further details can be obtained from Fresh RM on 0207 886 3100

If this is the event with all of the catering equipment manufacturers, I went to this last year. ExCel is a very big exhibition centre and easy access parking facilities.

I went to this last year and it is a must if you are thinking about purchasing new equipment. You can look at new products and talk to the manufacturers about them. Its easier to make an informed decision when you can actually see the kit, because the reps say their products are better.

I am thinking of going so if anyone else is maybe we can meet up at the event?

Sounds like a good idea to meet up for a coffee or at lunch time. I will be going on Thursday and I think Stu is trying to go then as well, but has not confirmed yet.

Regards

I will be coming up at lunchtime and meet anyone around 1 if they are available?

Hello Hammy,

Just as well I checked the forum this morning as we are about to leave in a minute. Yes 1 will be fine and we will meet you at the entrance by the registration section. There should be about 6 forum members meeting up and will be good to put faces to names.

I hope everyone that went enjoyed the equipment show. I wanted to come but have been very busy this week and have staff away on holiday at present. Maybe we could meet at another show this year or organise a forum meet somewhere else?

I did end up going but the only day I could manage it was Tuesday. I am up for a forum meeting if one is arranged.

Well what did you think of the show? We at the Buycatering buycatering.co.uk team went to the show, it was my first and I must say I was a little disappointed as some of the large suppliers where not there, I even heard some manufacturers just invited people to lunch/dinner rather than spend lots of money on a stand as they are so expensive these days. Defeats the object of a show I must say! I enjoyed the show and it did not take more than one day to see the catering equipment. I felt our showroom was more exciting than some of the stands at least you always get Tea & Coffee and a biscuit (if you're lucky home made cheese scones) Had some great soup and saw some fabulous new machines on the Robot Coupe stand thanks Ewen!

Trust me to find this after the event I was there on Wednesday. The show is quite a bit smaller that two year ago and I think it suffers a little bit! It is always good to catch up with the big players and see what is going on, but the interesting things generally come from the small independents and they were not there this time! Not sure what everybody went there for, but the good bits I saw were;

1) The Josper Charcoal Oven. You have to taste the product to see why! And I am a big fan of Rustic cooking.

2) Iglu refrigerators. These units are Italian and are stuffed full of techno goodies that come into their own in particular facilities. Not going to appeal to all, but the exec chef I was showing round from this fine dining restaurant could not get enough of them. If anyone is interested in a further run down of features let me know and I will go into detail.

3) Hobart have a box to make use of the grey water waste from your dishwasher and reuse it on your pre rinse spray.

4) Trak had a good counter feature on display. Frost top and induction elements under a composite stone top with no expansion gaps!

I think there was more, but I forget them as there were too many doo's in the evening to attend

I've missed the last couple, unfortunately it comes at a time of year that's usually quite busy for us and from Manchester it's either a very long day or a night over in London, neither of which were going to happen this year with a new at home!

The one thing i noticed is that the first year at Excel seemed quite good, and each one since has seemingly gotten less and less impressive. One thing suppliers i've spoken to have told me is that they simply can't justify the expense, for example one of the large stands can cost £60k once you've finished in addition to a weeks lost work for your staff. So to have any chance of getting that money back they would need to generate upwards of £500k in leads and that's just a mammoth amount!

One major bug i have with it is the fact it's always held in London, we like many including a lot of manufactures are based in the north which makes it a major trek to get there! If the event was held centrally in the NEC for instance 90% would have a maximum of 100 miles to travel, and i grantee that the attendance would increase!

P&A Services Ltd wrote: If the event was held centrally in the NEC for instance 90% would have a maximum of 100 miles to travel, and i grantee that the attendance would increase!

In all fairness there used to be one at the NEC, but the footfall did not pan out. I think it was called the Restaurant show and was held every other two years mirroring Hotelympia, One year it was at Earls Court, the next at the NEC etc. This show got smaller and smaller and eventually got known as the bar show, I am not sure what it is now but I have not attended one for the last 8 years.

It has been tried, but failed!

On a side note it is an international trade show and London is still best connected internationally.

I have been to the show your talking about at the NEC a few years ago and it was rubbish, the problem was that no one would shell out for two exhibitions and Olympia is the main one so that's where all the money goes!

What i'm suggesting is moving Olympia to the NEC, it makes sense to have the biggest and most important exhibition in a central place! Obviously it'll never happen, but if it did then you could probably expect an increase in interest. If nothing else it would be cheaper (over all) and the place is a lot bigger so in theory it could grow to be the show it needs to be!