Canton (Guangzhou) Fair 2011

Julian Baseley, BMFQ chairman & Earlex founder, reports on his attendance at the Canton (Guangzhou) Fair and asks why the lack of support from UK companies & the government.

One of the best kept secrets, as far as British manufacturers are concerned, is the Canton (Guangzhou) Fair. The exhibition is the largest in the world; in fact it is so big that it has to be held across 3 sessions lasting about 4 weeks in total. Even more incredible is that it is held twice a year – in April and October.

Originally the fair was purely for Chinese made products but a few years ago it was opened up to International companies. The secret of the show is that the whole world visits, mainly to look for Chinese supplies but also to visit the international halls to see other Asian suppliers such as Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Malaysian, together with a number of Western companies who have found that the potential for picking up new business is enormous.

Julian Baseley of Earlex Ltd. – the only British company exhibiting in the just finished April show, reports that they gained over 500 new contacts from all over the world and took significant orders at their stand.

 “We were the British pavilion” he said “that is what the organisers called us”.
Most countries have a pavilion comprising several exhibitor’s stands which have been organised by a trade body and sponsored by their government.
In the UK there is no such facility available”.

“The Chinese organisers have asked us if there is anyone else in the UK that would like to attend the exhibition. They see it as an opportunity to sell direct to China. This is a very big market and we have already taken orders from China, but an additional huge sales opportunity exists in all the other countries attending. We increased our stand size by 50% to 54 square meters for the April show and doubled the staff attending but we still couldn’t cope with all the visitors wanting information”.

“We have already booked space for the October 2011 show which I believe is now sold out, but I would highly recommend any companies with serious export ambition attending the April 2012 show. It would be great to have a number of British companies waving the flag. I have visited literally hundreds of exhibitions over the years and exhibited at many. It is one of the main mediums we use in our continuous search for new markets but I and my staff have never before experienced anything like the Canton Fair and the large number of people visiting our stand and wanting to discuss the products.”

“The big question I ask is, if the government and economists believe that as one of the BRIC countries China is a very important market for British exporters – why, out of 27,000 exhibitors were Earlex the only British company exhibiting”?

“Why does no other British manufacturing company bother to attend this show? It is quite extraordinary when you consider the potential of this Fair; it seems to be a total secret”.