The January issue of Progressive Party Europe is available to read now, packed full of great content including the Spielwarenmesse and Spring Fair previews, industry news and opinions, product updates and much more.
As is now the tradition with each January issue of Progressive Party, we’re leading with the big guns; The Retail Barometer.
For the ninth year in a row, we have frazzled our brains and burnt out our calculators dissecting the information you have sent in response to our annual Progressive Party Europe retail survey.
That 2018 has been a difficult year at retail is no secret; anyone on the front line is going to be painfully aware of that, but as always, it’s been fascinating from start to finish, with retailers reporting fortunes and failures in roughly equal measures.
Looking to the future though, retailers and buyers looking to get a head start on the 2019 seasons should head straight to our full previews of Spielwarenmesse and Spring Fair 2019.
Nuremberg’s Spielwarenmesse will be celebrating its 70th birthday this year, with Hall 9 jam-packed with over 250 party, dress-up and carnival companies. The European show has become increasingly important over the last few years and the party sector will be bigger than ever in 2019, featuring a new Showtime catwalk and demonstration area for the first time.
From there we head straight into Spring Fair at the NEC, which is always a great place to catch up with all manner of balloon and costume companies. Featuring a different exhibitor portfolio, it’s always worth heading to The Party Show in Hall 5 to see what’s on offer. (Although plenty of partyware companies can also be found in Halls 3 and 12, so make sure to pay those a visit as well.)
Product features in this issue take a look at the mini-seasons which take place throughout the first part of the year as well as Book Week, which continues to grow as a key season in its own right, despite many parents wishing it wouldn’t!
As ever, please drop us a line with any news, views or anything else you’d like us to look at in the future.
