Following the Governments introduction of the Covid Plan B this week, the Prime Ministers Address on Sunday evening, the current dramatic increase in Covid infections, and the continued press speculation that further Covid regulations may come into place with Covid Plan C, Merchandise World feel that they are forced into a position to postpone the January event until April 2022.
This decision is not taken lightly, as we were confident of putting on a safe event for the industry. However, we now fear that the Government may put Covid regulations in place that could prevent the event even taking place.
We deeply regret the inconvenience this will cause our loyal exhibitors who have already made significant plans for January, and the many hundreds of distributors that had already registered or intended to attend. The industry had demonstrated that they were excited to once again meet, and having put on a successful Merchandise World in September 2021 we fully expected January to be well attended and a much needed environment for the industry to regather and focus for the new year.
Rearranging such a large event is difficult, and demand for show hall space is high from many events that have been postponed across numerous industries over the past couple of years. This means we cannot simply ‘choose dates’, but have to deal with limited availability.
Merchandise World will now take place on Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th April 2022 at the CBS Arena, Coventry (Formerly the Ricoh Arena).
We fully expect the new April date to be the biggest UK industry event yet, and whilst we regret the wait, we know the industry will be excited to meet again in the Spring.
Published on: December 17th, 2021
