Excel empty!

[spannerman]

We came over to look at our new Princess 95 on friday having followed it through production from when it was in the mould to sea trials and now she is finished and soon coming up to Norway.
I must say I think Princess have got the lines just right when viewed from the side.
After viewing her we wandered over to the Sunseekers moored nearby, the night club bouncer on the quay arrogantly told us it was by appointment only and all appointments were taken.
'Oh well its obvious we bought from the right company then' I replied.
'What do you mean' he said.
'My boss has just taken delivery of the 95 over there'.
His gobsmacked face was a picture.
But as regards the rest of the show, I have never seen it so quiet, there were almost more salemen than punters, but it meant that you could get on most boats straight away.
I talked with the guy selling Windys which we also sell, he told me the Fairline engineers had been onboard the new Chinook and Triton and said as they left that they were now worried, the fit and finish was superb I have to admit.
There we a few makes that I hoped to see but didn't find, so it was a bit disappointing.
Oh well lets hope its busier next year.

 

[Nick_H]

[ QUOTE ]
I talked with the guy selling Windys which we also sell, he told me the Fairline engineers had been onboard the new Chinook and Triton and said as they left that they were now worried

[/ QUOTE ]

And of course a Windy salesman would never make something like that up /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[gsheddic]

I wouldn't bet on it being busier next year!
In fact I believe that, given the Show's notable failure to grow in the recent good years, the recession will simply accelerate its existing decline.
It was my 40th successive London Boat Show, so I have seen LBS in recession before, but I have never seen such a marked year on year fall in established exhibitors, nor so much bare carpet, nor so many bored boat salesman as on the day of my second visit, the last Friday.
I predict that the Southampton will go from strength to strength, and that LIBS at EXCEL will cease to exist when the BMF's present contract with EXCEL ends, if not sooner.

 

[Richard Shead]

I thought yesterday was supposed to be blue Monday...

Excel is empty now and I predict it will be very empty this Friday.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Yup, I bet they were shitting bricks about Windy's incredibly competitive pricing too

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Agree with that. In fact I'll bet that LIBS will die and the NEC National Boat Caravan & Outdoor show will take over as the only land based UK boat show. It's only 1 month later, doesn't conflict with Dusseldorf and is growing unlike LIBS

 

[Richard Shead]

This dropped in my inbox earlier you may find it interesting reading. Ahh the link does not work but look at the lbs story in news.

http://www.boatingbusiness.com

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

I agree with Mike 2 big boat shows is too much support for the UK builders, other builders have always finded it difficult to compete in the UK market as it is so related to the UK builders only
the sales for boats in the UK represent what used to be the car industry till the 80s, go to UK you find UK cars, go in Italy Italian cars, go in France its French cars and so on so forth
and I would choose Southampton over London any day, may be its time for LBS to get smaller and think more inside the box if it wants to survive
if you see what Cannes and Dusseldorf offer I find LBS a very boring boat show, even if one wants to look outside the box for other builders its hard to come really

 

[kcrane]

The link worked fine thanks. It said what the attendance was, but not the % up or down over previous years. Will be interesting to see how the big boys report their orders. The supplier comments in the article were, not being rude, from smaller players. The last Saturday was busy, so hopefully that late surge translated into some business. As a customer the quieter start did make it easy to have a good look around.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Propaganda designed to keep the morale of the troops up. I think if you asked a few motorboat exhibitors, they might tell you different

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Agree with that. In recent years LIBS has just become a showcase for the Big 4 motorboat builders (although 1 was missing in action this year) and there is less and less variety. SIBS is much better in this respect and Boot is on a different planet altogether

 

[Richard Shead]

Dont have any comment to make on this just providing the link for your interest.

But here's a thought have you ever considered how much exhibitors spend at the show? there were approx 11,000 passes issued as stated on our ybw.com TV piece, I know for a fact that two alone spent over 30k on new RIBS! and I always blow a few hundred on clothes I really dont need!

Just throwing a little bit more into the mix..

 

[DPH]

So 2008 127,351 and 2009 112,000

I make that 12% down.


Just for the record you understand Richard.

 

[Richard Shead]

Again I have never mentioned any figures in any of my posts apart from saying they were down! ! I have mentioned busy days and quiet days but never quoted any figure..

I am going to wait until the audited figure comes out before I pass comment.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Yup, as my own business exhibits at exhibitions as do the manufacturers we represent, I do know a bit about how much an exhibition costs. Certainly the cost of the big mobo stands when you take account of the transport costs for the boats, travel and accomodation for stand staff as well as the cost of the stand space and fitting runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds so you need to generate an awful lot of leads to make it worthwile. As for selling a couple of £30k RIBS, the profit on those wouldn't cover the total costs of having a medium sized stand. I suspect that the exhibitors who make the most directly measureable profit on exhibitions like LIBS are the chandlery stands although I can't understand why peeps buy chandlery stuff at exhibitions because the prices are jacked up and you've got to carry the stuff around

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

12% down on a recision is normal
Genoa had -8% in October
and I am sure Dusseldorf will also have decreases this year...

but is that figure really a magic number for a big city as London with 7 million+ of people living there
I think of it this way
the boating population in the UK is also much more then that at over 200.000
Southampton does also more then this at about 130.000+

still what Richard and that article say is that compared to previous years it was not bad in all this recession and stuff
but what surprises is that I see too much defence from YBW about the LBS

 

[Richard Shead]

I am aware of how much it costs to exhibit that was not my point, my point was there are an awful lot of exhibitors there and many of them spend money on products there. I was simply adding to the conversation as I dont think anyone has ever considered exhibitor spend on product at the show.

I even know of exhibitors coming back with new cars and motorbikes (and of course hot tubs) after exhibiting at a show.

And yes I do know how much it costs for the larger manufactures both in the UK and overseas as I have direct experience of this.

As you say, you dont understand why some people carry large amounts of chandlery around with them but they do, everybody is different, I dont understand why anyone would ever eat mushy peas but they do...right back to my expenses, this is exhibiting lark costs a fortune.

 

[Richard Shead]

Did you go?

 

[Major Catastrophe]

[ QUOTE ]
This dropped in my inbox earlier you may find it interesting reading. Ahh the link does not work but look at the lbs story in news.

http://www.boatingbusiness.com

[/ QUOTE ]

The video games business trade press were still waxing lyrical about the Excel and Earls Court shows even after quiet announcements were made that stand bookings for the next year would mean neither show was viable.

Good trade PR can put spin on any disaster.

I didn't go to LIBS, but I know someone who did and he thought it was dreadful. He said that being able to get onto boats without the crowds did not hide the fact that salesmen seemed desperate for any kind of interest. But, the show is not all about Fairline, Princess and the other big boys, it is about the hundreds of small businesses who make any show a success.

Shows collapse for one of two reasons. Two or more of the big boys pull out, or the small boys don't book stands.

 

[Richard Shead]

Dont be surprised, I have not answered half the threads about this show and this will be the last one I am commenting on as I have too much to do.

There are no back handers I just tell it as I see it.

With regards to LBS 09 I set out with several objectives and achieved them all thats why I exhibit. BUT I am aware not all will have had the same amount of success.

Thank you and good night!