A DRIVE FOR BUSINESS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 6 December 1927, Page 8

A DRIVE FOR BUSINESS

GREAT BRITISH EFFORT. FAIR IN FEBRUARY. That British manufacturers are fully alive to the value of modern publicity methods is indicated by the remarkable organising ability which is being displayed in connection with the fourteenth annual British Industries Fair, to be held from February 20 to March 2 ,at London and at Birmingham. Large expensions are being made in the buildings of the White City, London, where 15 large exhibition halls, covering an area of 11 acres, will be needed to display the varied products of the 1500 or so manufacturers who will require space in the London section In Birmingham, new exhibition halls have had to be built at Castle Bromwich to meet the ever-growing requirements of exhibitors. Even so, it was at one time doubtful whether all the demands for space could be met, as the area let six months before the opening of the fair was greater than the total area of the last Birmingham fair, which was itself a record. The same great demands were experienced in London, where 20,000 square feet in excess of the total area of last year's fair had already been booked at the beginning of September. Practically every manufacturing industry in the country, with the exception of the largest and heaviest branches of engineering, will be represented.

Greater efforts are also being made to acquaint the commercial and industrial world with details relating to the fair. British Government representatives abroad (diplomatic, commercial and consular officers in foreign countries, and British trade commissioners and Imperial trade correspondents in all parts of the British Empire) have been supplied with literature devoted to the subject, This includes show cards printed in six languages and an illustrated folder in nine languages. Of the latter, nearly half a million copies are being distributed. A special series of letters is being issued at regular intervals to thousands of individual traders abroad in their appropriate languages, and invitations will be sent later to a quarter of a million buyers resident in no less than 94 different countries. A special advance overseas edition of the fair catalogue is in course of preparation, and, seven weeks before the opening of the fair, 10,000 copies of it will be distributed abroad.

When the fair is open the same exhaustive efforts will be made to facilitate the rapid transaction of practical business. A strict rule has been laid down that in London the general public will be excluded from admis-

sion to the fair during business hours. A special club, for the sole use of buyers, will offer many comforts and amenities, and the free use of a corps of interpreters will render business relations easier between exhibitor and buyer.