Meat industry show sizzles in hottest summer period on record

Meat industry show sizzles in hottest summer period on record

Posted on Jul 2, 2015

During one of the hottest UK summer periods ever recorded the two-day Meatup event at Stoneleigh Park showcased some of the best equipment and services on offer to the UK meat industry.

The dress rehearsal by Team GB for the Tri Nations Butchery Challenge was a superb event and attracted a huge amount of attention and admiration from spectators. Competitior, David Lishman said: “We get better with each practice session so having Meatup as a platform to refine our techniques and ideas further is great.”

Lucy Crawshaw was crowned the UK’s Premier Young Butcher at the National Federation of Meat Trader’s competition. It was the first contest of its kind that Lucy had entered and she clearly impressed the judges.

The seminar presentations were extremely well received by those attending them. Key highlights included Professor David Hughes and Professor Ralph Early. AHDB Beef & Lamb’s Laura Ryan said: “David was superb and teased out some really interesting points and ideas about the key proteins and the opportunities that are out there on a highly competitive stage.”

Professor Ralph Early from Harper Adams presented two fascinating papers around meat consumption and its impact on our world and the question of ethics in the food industry.

Visitor numbers were clearly impacted on by the weather as Roger Kelsey, CEO of the National Federation of Meat & Food Traders said: “In this weather many retailers will be flat out producing barbecue products for customers and making the most of a strong commercial opportunity – and who can blame them!”

However, as is the case with many trade shows the emphasis is always on quality rather than quantity.

Exhibitior, Gary Lunney, of Link Print and Packaging had a great start to Meatup: “On the first morning we took an order for one of our labelling machines with a commitment to order three more in the coming month, which has been a fantastic start to our day. We also have customers arriving tomorrow to hopefully place further orders. All in all a good result for us.”

Simon Cliff, business development executive, Eurofins Food Testing Ltd added: “It has been quiet but this morning we got a few orders. We’ve seen lots of information [about Meatup] in press releases and trade journals in the lead up to the event. Although the seminars haven’t been completely full, there have been enough people clearly interested in them.”

The marketing of the show was praised by many who attended including Louise Mahrra, marketing manager at Hawk Safety who said: ‘The pre-event promotional activity was good and the social media following has helped drive traffic to the stand. I think the planning and organisation has been superb.”

David Brennand, managing director Innovative Food Ingredients added: “They’ve done a good job of the marketing. In terms of the show I wouldn’t personally have picked Tuesday to Wednesday, it could have been Sunday to Monday.”

The organisers of what many exhibitors considered to be an extremely well marketed and professionally presented trade event were naturally disappointed that the unprecedented heatwave clearly kept visitor numbers lower than anticipated.

Show director, Graham Yandell said: “As those who supported and attended the show have endorsed it’s hard to know what we could have done differently but the weather is one factor certainly beyond our control!

“As we have always done, following past events, we will be listening to all the feedback we receive and analysing it to further improve our offering to this great industry. There are a lot of positives for us to take away and, as always, lessons to be learned. I would like to thank everyone who supported the show and assure everyone of our continued commitment in moving forward to our next event in 2017.”

To discuss opportunities in 2017 call Julie Bircher direct on 01928 740579 or Emma Cash on 01908 613323.