With the last day yesterday, the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show has begun the Olympic year with success for the leisure marine industry with strong, positive feedback from both visitors and exhibitors. In total, 134,753 visitors visited ExCeL London across the 10 days to enjoy five Shows in one*, with 102,841 enjoying a specific trip to the Boat Show.
Despite the difficult financial climate, this puts the 2012 Show just 6% behind last year’s attendance and slightly ahead of 2010. The Show continues to be a resilient and evolving event, in line with industry demand, with sales figures proving better than expected for many.
The Show, as always, with interactive and educational features, continues to impress and entertain visitors. More than 1200 visitors climbed HMS Victory yacht’s rigging, over 1850 got afloat on the Watersports Action Pool with Neilson and Rockley Watersports and thousands of visitors took advantage of the mild weather to head out to the Used Boat Marina in association with YachtWorld. Plus, the introduction of the Luxury Lifestyle & Supercar Showcase, along with The London Bike, Outdoors and Active Travel Show, has helped to broaden the Show’s appeal and attract a more diverse range of visitors.
Importantly, the Show remains a vital showcase for the £2.9bn marine industry, highlighting manufacturing excellence, design, quality and innovation. Sales made at this Show are vital for exhibitors’ business plans for the year and the sector has shown resilience in the face of continuing economic turmoil.
Murray Ellis, Managing Director of NBS is pleased with the success of the Show: “We have worked extremely hard to create a 10 day event that our exhibitors would be proud of and that meets visitors’ expectations. The response we have had from visitors is that we are continuing to deliver the ‘wow’ factor. We acknowledge that numbers are down which is a disappointment but we are pleased with the high quality of visitors and the reflective sales.
“There has been a real buzz around the Show, from the moment the Show was opened last Friday by Tamara Ecclestone with a media throng.”
David Pougher, Chairman of National Boat Shows added: “With 14 world launches and more than 45 boats being launched in total, the London Show has once again cemented itself as an important event in the international marine calendar. We welcomed 128 new companies to the Show, over 500 companies in total, who have taken advantage of the January timing to promote themselves and their products to a significant audience, which they would not have otherwise seen.”
Exhibitor quotes
Exhibitors have been making sales from the start of the Show. After the first weekend, Drascombe by Churchhouse Boats has sold two boats, which gives Simon Harwood, Production Manager, about six months of work. By the end of Wednesday Ultrasonic Antifouling was on an even par with last year’s Show on sales after five days and Bates Wharf had sold two Bayliners and a Sessa C32, with lots of interest in their boats outside on the Used Boats Marina in association with YachtWorld.com.
“We are pleased with the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show. In terms of retail sales we are ahead of the same time last year. We’ll be back next year.” Fairline Boats
“The world is a difficult place currently but we are very pleased with our result in this environment and look forward to 2013.” Robert Braithwaite, Sunseeker International
“This is the best London Show for six years.” Paul Heyes, Key Yachting
Princess Yachts is very pleased to announce another successful Tullett Prebon London Boat Show with sales exceeding expectations. “While we are under no illusion that we still face many challenges across our international markets, we are delighted that the positive progress we saw in sales at the PSP Southampton Boat Show has continued into London and it is an encouraging start to the New Year”. Chris Gates, Princess Yachts
“I just finished an order for 10 of our new Crabber 12, having sold quite a few already during the week, plenty of interest from groups like the scouts and lots of interest in our other boats. We’ve had a very good show.” Peter Thomas, Cornish Crabber
“Val Wyatt Marine, representing Interboat and Jetten Yachting of Holland and Viking Moulding, is pleased to advise that following a successful Southampton Boat Show (no boats were sold but 11 sales: four Jetten, three Interboat, and four Vikings were made from direct enquiries at the Show), London 2012 seems as positive with four trials now booked already and a great number of serious leads to follow up. It is with note that both the Dutch companies we represent continue with a commitment to the UK boat shows and have already confirmed their attendance at Southampton in September 2012. Also both Interboat and Jetten are now using the UK shows to launch their new products with the world premiers of the Interboat 640 and Jetten 30 Sedan here at this show.” Guy Girling, Val Wyatt Marine
“Our sales figure continues to grow at the Show with the level of interest remaining very high. The new range of Mariner Boats has made its debut here at the Show targeting a gap in the market for small to medium size river launches that are stylish and affordable. Whilst all models have proven popular at the show the Mariner 421, with three sold, is currently in the lead closely followed by the Mariner 560 and the Mariner 520. ABC has also been approached by several dealers along the Thames as well as two dealers near to the Norfolk Broads all wanting to become stocking dealers, showing that even in the current economic conditions the right products will always sell.” Matt, ABC Marine
“We’ve had a very, very good show. We’ve sold boats across our range and we’ve found that there has been a high level of visitor. We’ve no complaints at all”. Matt Hornsby, Williams Performance Tenders
“It’s a challenging market, but this is a really good event. I am both selling and taking orders; it helps set me up for the year.” Stephen Lees, Marine Artist
“We’re happy with the level of business and the quality of customer. It’s been as good as we had hoped it would be. The Show helps deliver our brand and build business for the coming months.” Rob Clay, TCS Chandlery
“Having a great Show, it’s a good opportunity to meet our customer base and promote our distributors.” English Braids
Having launched the latest additions to their deck hardware range at this year’s Show: “The Show has been good and the quality of visitors very good.” Paul Botterill, Barton Marine
“I just sold my first boat this morning (Saturday) and I’ve had plenty of sign-ups for demo days.” Seema Patel, SmartKat
“The Show has been great for us and we are very happy for the outcome.” Lester Abbott, Northshore
“We have sold three boats, which is the first time for five years we have had a direct sale at the Show.” Midlands Nautique
“There has been much more quality of people to the stand. The people that are here want to be here. I have had some good leads for both permanent and temporary clients. It’s been a good Show overall.” Chris Windsor, Dover Marina
“As a direct result of the Show we are looking at close to 100 confirmed marina berths being taken. The stand has been a useful tool for other exhibitors to bring people to, to discuss berthing options.” Gareth Turnbull, Which Marina?
“Having the System 2 cable wake system down by the pool has produced some good leads. It has been a good platform for us to be able to invite interested people to the Show to see us. I will be coming back.” Tim Woodhead, Industry Wake Parks
“The arrival of The London Bike, Outdoors and Active Travel Show has brought loads of visitors to our stand, resulting in us smashing our targets for today.” Helen Waterhouse, RYA
“We’ve had a great show, with a steady stream of quality customers throughout. We found it particularly busy the last few days and have seen some strong sales, especially on the larger Turbojets and the new Dieseljet range. There has been particular interest in the 565 Dieseljet, with several orders for yacht tenders and as standalone day boats. The Tullett Prebon London Boat Show seems to have attracted a lot more foreign visitors than the Southampton Boat Show, and we have sold boats to China, Brazil and the US. Overall, an excellent start to the year for Williams.” Mathew Hornsby, Williams Performance Tenders
“We’ve had a successful show with sales and customer interest far exceeding last year’s Tullett Prebon London Boat Show. We saw significant interest in our new brands, Aquatic AV, Alpine and Digital Yacht, which have all brought new customers to our stand, as well as continued interest from OEMs and customers in the market-leading KVH products. All in all a great show, with a great buzz, quality customers and good sales.” Andrew Bush, C A Clase
The event also provided the BMF with the opportunity to promote the successful leisure marine industry, which employees some 31,300 people, to important political, financial and business stakeholders to ensure that key decision makers understand the importance of the sector to UK plc. Business Minister Mark Prisk, Skills Minister John Hayes and CBI Director General John Cridland CBE all departed having been impressed with the manufacturing excellence on display and key to help and promote the industry in the future.
The Show also proves a magnet with a number of celebrities and personalities. HRH The Princess Royal made her annual visit while TV personalities Nick Knowles, Mario from The Only Way is Essex, magician Paul Daniels and wife Debbie McGee and sports stars – both current and ex – enjoyed the Show: Alan Brazil, Ray Parlour and Jensen Button. Sailing heroes Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson, Brian Thompson, GB canoeists Huw Sweetnam, Lani Belcher and Abigail Edmonds, three-times Jet Ski Champion Jack Moule and powerboat champion Shelley Jory-Leigh also took time to entertain visitors.
One of the stars of the Show was, undoubtedly the Watersports Action Pool. The pool has seen wall to wall action with champions of all disciplines showing off their skills. Importantly 1850 visitors have had the chance to get on the water and give it a try themselves, choosing from kayaking, wakeboarding, dinghy sailing, windsurfing and stand up paddle boarding.
The interactive activity provided by exhibitors on various stands around the Show has really added to the overall visitor experience and has also been a success for those exhibitors involved.
The 2012 PSP Southampton Boat Show will take place at Mayflower Park from 14-23 September, while next year’s Tullett Prebon London Boat Show runs from 11-20 January 2013 at ExCeL London.
