William Reed Business Media (WRBM) who organise the biennial Foodex show have confirmed that it will not allow Meat Management magazine to exhibit at its 2014 show.
Publisher of Meat Management, Graham Yandell commented: "Naturally we are disappointed that having exhibited in previous years we now appear to be subject to what appears to us to be a growing level of restrictive practice by WRBM.
"In contrast, we are and always have been very happy to publicise the Foodex event or carry advertising for it, and the record confirms this. We have actually been trying to book our stand space for Foodex since May, but it was only in late August that we were eventually informed that our stand booking would not be accepted. No reason was given.
"In fairness, I should mention that we have been told we can visit the show in 2014, but it concerns me that our advertisers and readers might feel we are not prepared to exhibit. We most certainly are, but it is now out of our hands".
The latest move by WRBM follows its decision not to accept visitor advertising for Yandell's MEATUP exhibition in its titles, including Meat Trades Journal earlier this year, despite no similar restriction in place within the Meat Management portfolio. This was also the case in 2011 when the previous MEATUP was staged and its visitor advertising was not accepted.
Graham Yandell added: "I personally believe that we in the media should be customer focused and work in the best interests of those who pay our wages. I really do not see what this type of thing achieves, but we respect the Foodex decision and hope people will be aware why we are not exhibiting."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
