Two days of excellent business

The British & International Franchise Exhibition, Olympia, London, provides two days of excellent business

The British & International Franchise Exhibition, held recently in Central London at Olympia, delivered two days of excellent business and networking opportunities for the leading exhibitors and thousands of visitors who attended.

Hundreds of top franchise companies showcased their business opportunities included Apollo Blinds, Cash Generator, Coffee Republic, Snappy Snaps, Thorntons, Signs Express, Dream Doors, Go Cruise, ChipsAway, Chemex, Papa John’s, Distribution Unlimited, Medics on the Move, The Travel Counsellors, RockMasters and Premier Sport.

The exhibition, the only London franchise event accredited by the British Franchise Association, received considerable praise from the visitors.

Hiral Patel, Marketing Manager from Kingston Upon Thames, said: “The exhibition was fantastic, a really well laid out event. The company presentations as part of the franchise zones that I attended were clear, concise and well presented providing some useful advice.”

Mark Northwaite, a Training and Recruitment Consultant, from Norfolk, commented: “Overall I was very impressed with the layout, range and information provided. As a first fact finding expedition to a franchise event this has proved very worthwhile indeed.”

Exhibitors at the exhibition were equally complimentary:

Philip Battams, CEO of Evapure Products, said: “A fantastic show, with well over two hundred positive leads during the two days which we will be making appointments with shortly. I had one visitor asking me when he could pay me the deposit on the master franchise of £550,000 – not too bad for the first day!”

John Kilbey, Franchise Manager at Countrywide, commented: “This has been the best attended exhibition this year. We have had over 30 firm expressions of interest with one potential client willing to relocate to a vacant franchise area. We are expecting continued growth in both the Lawn Doctor and Grounds Maintenance franchises.”

The Women in Franchising Zone proved to be particularly helpful to visitors. This interactive forum provided invaluable advice, guidance and networking opportunities for women looking to start their own ventures and attracted a full house in the seminar theatre. As Katie Sale, a Sales Manager from Bromley, said: “The Women in Franchising Zone which was particularly of interest to me providing me with some very useful business tips and ideas from women who have experienced the highs and lows of business.”

David Tuck, Franchise Sales Manager at Venture Marketing Group, commented, “As the well established franchise exhibition in Central London, we are continuing to build on our previous success and we have seen that once again this event has delivered a high calibre of visitor providing some really good potential business leads.”

The Growing Your Own Business Exhibition & Conference

The Growing Your Own Business Exhibition & Conference was an extremely rewarding event for all who exhibited and attended. The seminars proved to be highly popular with Michelle Tennens, director of redPepper Marketing providing valuable marketing tips to many entrepreneurs in the audience while the CBI and international entrepreneur of the year award winner, Steve Leach, founder and director of bigmouthmedia, impressed delegates with his insight on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Another speaker who captured the hearts and minds of audience members was Annabel Gatward of luxury lingerie e-tailer Glamorousamorous.com who discussed excellent customer service. Mike Segall of the Business Resources Group presented his ever-popular account of the rise and power of networking.

Visitors to the event attended further seminars provided by Business Link while companies exhibiting, provided valuable business growth resources and advice. All exhibitors praised the consistently high, quality of visitors and positive leads generated. Visit sme-events.com for further details.

The 2009 British & International Franchise Exhibition returns to Olympia, London on 20 & 21 March. For further information visit www.franinfo.co.uk.