Ohh Deer set to trump Toasted Crumpet in worldwide battle of the fairs
Ohh Deer and Toasted Crumpet give no quarter in the ongoing debate about the worth of trade shows – both companies absolutely love them!
And they’ve proven that devotion by notching up nine shows apiece this year, with greeting card and wrap publisher Ohh Deer about to snatch the honours as co-owner Mark Callaby and the team are shortly off to Paperworld Middle East.
He laughed: “Only nine?! We’re doing 10 this year – we’re currently level pegging with Toasted Crumpet, but we do our 10th in November and it’s in Dubai… because why not?”
Jo Clarke is the creative director and founder at home, stationery and card brand Toasted Crumpet, and recently posted the reel that can be seen above across the company’s social media channels showing all the fun she and the team had at shows.
“We thought we’d do something crazy, like nine trade shows!” Jo said. “We always adore seeing our fabulous stockists and it really means so much seeing you at the shows and catching up face to face.
“As we head into the busiest quarter of the year, we’re working our socks off back in our warehouse to get all of our autumn-winter lines into stores, as well as planning lots of gorgeousness for 2025.”
And head of sales Kim Thackery explained their first trade show was Spring Fair back in 2016 when Jo was “immediately hooked” on them.
She added: “The buzz and atmosphere of a trade show is still such a lovely thing to experience and, as we have grown as a business and taken on more and more customers, it’s a fantastic chance to see everyone face to face to show them any lovely newness and to thank them for their support.
“We’ve always found trade shows to also be an invaluable opportunity to meet new stockists and discover new retailers, and for them to discover us. Jo has always taken great care when curating our trade show stands, and we absolutely love merchandising all the displays to really showcase our products and give our customers inspiration for how they can display their own slice of Toasted Crumpet in their own stores.
“As a brand owner, Jo personally loves the chance to meet other brands at the shows to build relationships, share experiences and news – there’s nothing like being inside an exhibition centre for days on end together to nurture some great networking chances!”
This has been Toasted Crumpet’s biggest year yet on the trade show front, starting in January when Jo flew to Dallas in January for the company’s first ever showroom launch at Dallas Market before coming back for Top Drawer Spring, closely followed by Spring Fair – with a nip back to the US in between for the Atlanta Market launch. Then came Harrogate Home & Gift, two further successful summer shows in Dallas and Atlanta, and finishing off with Autumn Fair and Top Drawer Autumn/Winter.
Kim said: “We can’t deny it’s been quite exhausting but the benefit we get from doing the shows and the opportunities which come from them far outweigh the tiredness.
“We’ve already secured our place at a number of shows for 2025 and Jo is also planning to visit the US shows again next year as our business in America goes from strength to strength, to support our US team and meet our US stockists and bring a little bit of Britishness to the showrooms.”
Having been to Top Drawer’s spring-summer and autumn-winter shows, plus Spring Fair, NAMTA, Ambiente, PG Live, Atlanta Market, Home & Gift, and Shoppe Objet, with Paperworld happening in November, Mark told PG Buzz: “There are lots of reasons why I love them, but number one is getting to see our customers and see how they interact with our product. I also love seeing my friends in the industry and that’s hard to do sometimes outside of shows as everyone lives in different areas of the world.”
But Mark’s on his own on this one as far as business and life partner Jamie Mitchell is concerned as he stays home while the team travels the world, hitting London three times, Birmingham, New Orleans, Frankfurt, Atlanta, Harrogate, and New York already, with Dubai to come – and the plan is to match that in 2025 or possible increase to a round dozen by taking in summer and winter editions.
“I’ve actually enjoyed them all. I’ve personally done every show this time, next year I can’t as a few of them clash, and in Atlanta I had the best neighbours and laughed a lot.
“They’re just not Jamie’s bag. He much prefers making the product and being more behind the scenes. He is actually quite social, but it’s when he wants to – not when he has to.
“Do you need to do them? You don’t but, for us, they’re an important part of our strategy. It depends what you want from your business. You can absolutely do well without doing the shows.
“My least favourite part is easily breakdown. Post-show blues kick in and, because we do all our own build, it’s a slog at the end of a show. I also hate the early starts of 5am when we go to build at a London show!”
