Major exhibition postponed after organiser fails

THE Business North West exhibition due to take place in Manchester next month has been postponed until next year following the collapse of the company behind it.

Nationwide Publishing, Scott Hider’s Bristol-based firm that has staged the event at Manchester Central since 2005, has ceased trading and is being handled by an insolvency specialist in Leicestershire called FA Sims & Partners.

Another events firm, London-based Easyfairs, has stepped in and bought Nationwide’s assets for an undisclosed sum.

In a statement it said the Manchester exhibition would take place in May next year and it has promised to honour payments around 65 exhibitors have already made to Nationwide.

Nationwide was charging £325 per square metre for exhibition space with the smallest pitch covering nine square metres – a cost of £2,925.

Sister events in Doncaster and Coventry were due to take place in November. Easyfairs said the Coventry show would also be postponed until May but Yorkshire would only take place, “as soon as the market is ready”. Another exhibition, Business West of England, has also been postponed indefinitely.

Easyfairs’ managing director Matt Benyon said: “Easyfairs will, as a goodwill gesture, take into consideration deposit amounts already paid to the previous owners on all contracts for the new events in May.

“We have some clear ideas where improvements can be made to reshape the shows that will make a difference for the industries they serve.”

The event, which was due to take place on October 27-28, was sponsored by Business Link. Its supporters included Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the Institute of Directors and Manchester City Council.

It is billed as two days of “exciting and informative content” designed to help businesses build relationships, find sources of funding and hear inspirational stories from high profile figures.

Andy Thompson, a director at the Trafford-based IT and telecoms firm Computerised Business Systems, signed up for a £3,000 pitch and had paid half up front.

He said: “We’ve spent months preparing for this to happen in October and were about to go to the printers to spend a large amount of money on exhibition stands.

“I was also about to pay the second instalment for the pitch. We’ve lost some money but I can imagine there’s a lot of other businesses that don’t know it’s not going ahead.”