What is Springfair?
Recently I spent a day at Springfair in Birmingham. Springfair is the UK’s No.1 wholesale Home and Gift show for the retail industry. It is held at the NEC, Birmingham in February across four days and is designed around three key areas, namely Home, Gift and Fashion. It hosts thousands of brands, and there is a massive variety to choose from.
How did I find out about Springfair?
One word- Instagram! I noticed back in November/December that Brands that I currently stock such as Sass & Belle, Malini and Lisa Angel started mentioning Springfair and intrigue led me to the Springfair site. I knew this was something I wanted to attend, and I registered my interest. A few weeks later, I got a call from the curated meetings team where they asked if I would be interested in signing up to the curated meetings programme, I jumped at the opportunity and agreed to meet with five distinct brands at Springfair.
I flew over at dawn on the morning of the 7th February and it was so exciting to be up in the air again, how I missed flying! I looked out the window for all 44 minutes of the flight! Luckily, the NEC is located right next to Birmingham Airport and a quick walk led me there. I was totally blown away by the sheer size of the arena and the number of businesses exhibiting their brands, I didn’t know where to start but a quick coffee and a quick map later, and I was in shopping heaven!! I met so many lovely people and it was so nice to be able to talk “face to face” after this nightmare of a pandemic. There were no pushy sales tactics being used and overall, it was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere.
I enjoyed all the meetings, and left with my little wheelie suitcase jam packed with product brochures.
What did I buy?
So far, I have placed orders with Rex London, Powder UK, Eleanor Bowmer, Siip Infuso and Oddsocks, stay tuned to find out what beautiful new products I will be adding to the website in the coming weeks.
What did I learn?
That I had found a fantastic outlet for adding new Brands to the Four Sisters family, and that one day was simply not enough! Don’t worry though, I’ve already booked to go back in September for two full days to Autumnfair and I am ridiculously excited already!
Where did I stay?
I have never been to Birmingham but found the Grand Hotel on booking.com and thought it looked beautiful. A quick 10-minute train journey took me there from the NEC and I was blown away by this absolute beauty of a hotel, again, my excitement was palpable! An inspiring mix of old and new, it combines the original Victorian architecture with striking modern features and has the most insta-worthy staircase I have ever seen.
After walking 20,000+ steps that day, I slept like a baby and was on the early flight back the next morning to see my four babies. An absolutely fantastic 24 hours and I look forward to returning in September.