GTN Issue 85

THE GREAT BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW

The British Shooting Show bucks the doom and gloom of the last few months as it prepares to open its doors at the NEC on February 17-19

“IT’S GREAT, EXHIBITOR attendance numbers are, yet again, up on previous years. It’s going to be a great Christmas for many of our visitors if our ticket sales are anything to go by. I like to imagine them opening those envelopes on Christmas morning, and receiving the gift of British Shooting Show tickets!”

We’re talking to Phil Challands of FRL Media Group, the people behind The British Shooting Show as it enters its 15th year. Recognised throughout the industry as the UK’s largest ‘must visit’ industry event, “It’s placed on a pedestal in line with other prestigious worldwide events such as IWA in Germany and the Shot Show in the USA,” Phil affirms.

The ambition began back in 2008 with what started as a shooter’s dream—to start an event purely for shooters covering all aspects and disciplines.

Phil explains: “While there are an abundance of country fairs throughout the UK, the market would embrace a dedicated shooting show, the idea went.

The Great British Shooting Show was born to serve this requirement, starting from humble beginnings at Newark showground, what followed has been exceptional growth year on year.”

These days the event is a regular fixture at the UK’s largest event centre, The NEC, Birmingham. This centralised location offers direct motorway and rail access, and for international visitors, direct flights to the event centre from around the world.

“The sheer visual overload on entering the exhibition halls is a credit to our industry,” explains Phil, “from the likes of the global manufacturers’ massive commercial island sites with thousands of items on display to the creative and bespoke companies proudly displaying from a smaller booth, the British Shooting Show proudly promotes and supports our smallest exhibitor and our largest global companies with equal exuberance.”

“The ethos of the British Shooting Show is very simple—service the gun trade and not get embroiled in distractions and dilutions outside of our sector. Staying focused enables our platform to deliver a massive continued and dedicated visitor base, while the manufacturers strive to achieve the finest products to serve our ever-demanding public visitor and trade business alike, the quality product ranges from clothing, optics, shotguns, rifles, airguns, night vision, game shoots, luxury holidays, competition shoots and much, much more. The British Shooting Show remains the UK’s undisputed finest platform to promote and educate retail and public alike.”

Industry

“The British Shooting Show simply works,” enthuses Phil. “The massive importance placed on the show by the industry is rewarded by the sheer financial boost the event brings, that being millions of pounds to the gun trade every February.

“Last year alone we had Boss & Co. securing yet another gun order, this time a triple set of shotguns, Bentley selling three vehicles, and that success went all the way to first-time exhibitor Hilditch Wood Design, who secured an enormous gunroom contract— when we heard about that our morale was boosted exponentially!”

One of BSS’s greatest successes is the chance for manufacturers to talk to retail; there have always been pre-booked meetings with the retail sector taking place across the whole show weekend.

According to the organisers, next year will be no different, with many of the company’s meeting slots already having been filled on Friday and Saturday. This can also be confirmed by the level of prebooked meetings taking place in the British Shooting Show meeting rooms, they say.

“Discussion over the summer with retailers has been extremely interesting,” Phil reveals. “July, August and September were somewhat mixed, the topic in most cases was that retailers currently had no stock and were unsure if they would receive products and have enough stock for the show. Here we are in December with very buoyant retailers reporting plenty of stock arriving daily and on time for the show. The British Shooting Show constantly markets across the printed sector and our massive digital platform; both have played an enormous part in promoting all the exhibitors attending, this offering being another aspect to the UK’s finest industry event having the largest shooting visitor database available. Over the past 15 years this data has proven invaluable and is testament to our company’s continued growth.”

“Continuing with that key word ‘Growth’, we would like to reveal our next phase—Gun Review—our online version of a world recognised TV series where three chaps talk about cars. The Gun Review series brings something completely ridiculous… Three chaps talking about guns!”

“John Allison and Jonny Carter’s concept meeting took place at the British Shooting Show Headquarters with the remit of bringing the new generation of shooters into our wonderful sport. Episode One is live to the world and has been met with overwhelming support from viewers.”

“One last thought—exhibitors and visitors can rest assured the British Shooting Show (as registered firearms dealers ourselves) do everything we can to make working with us a pleasure and a very safe one at that—safe being the operative word. The NEC complex enables the gun trade to operate in a completely safe and secure environment.” GTN GTN