Autumn Fair Top Story

Members and friends of the CHA celebrated the fifteenth birthday of the trade association at its centre stand within the bustling CHA Village at Autumn Fair International.

The celebrations got underway with the unwrapping of the association’s increasingly successful Cook’s Companion, wowing retailers with the great products and prices included within the new edition of the annual promotional booklet. Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver featured alongside their licensed ranges, amongst many other innovative and specialist cookware, kitchenware and tableware products.

Knives are out for retailers among trading standards departments across the country and the CHA made its members a surprise present with the launch of its much needed Knife Sales Information Support Pack, which is free to all BHF Group members. The pack, launched with encouragement from the Home Office, contains all the information and guidance a retailer needs when selling knives and includes sample posters for use in store.

The party really started as the CHA stand turned party venue on Sunday afternoon, offering visitors music, games, a giant cupcake birthday cake from Nordicware and celebratory drinks courtesy of Emap Connect. As well as the party, the goodie-bag of 15 per cent discounts on offer to members from suppliers exhibiting on the CHA Village went down a storm, as did the special 15 per cent discount on new CHA membership for the first two years, which attracted a number of new members to sign up at the show.

Giving a gift back to the industry and to celebrate the fantastic array of products on show in Hall 2, Monday morning saw a crowd of enthusiastic CHA judges made up of independent retail members shopping the show to reward those products and suppliers that stood out from the rest, with these products were given awards at a presentation on Monday afternoon:

* Best New Product At Show: Preps Funnel (Paul Hargreaves Associates)
* Best Product At Show: Preps Funnel (Paul Hargreaves Associates)
* Most Innovative Product At Show: “Meeting” knife set by Deglon (Kitchen Kapers International)
* Best Packaging At Show: Scoop Colander (Joseph Joseph)

Still not worn out by the celebrations, the organisation hit the fun trail again on the Tuesday as the HDRA Awards were presented to a number of very deserving winners.

Members got a further slice of the action with the announcement on the last day of the show of the winners of the 15th Birthday draw:
* 1st Prize: Ann Richardson of A Swift & Son, Preston, Lancs won tickets to the Excellence in Housewares Awards plus accommodation at the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
* 2nd Prize: Chris Lynn-Thomas, Kooks Unlimited, Richmond, Surrey snaffled £150 of High Street shopping vouchers
* 3rd Prize: Mr Yogi Shah, Macdonalds Discount Stores, London walked away with a Champagne Goody Bag

The icing on the cake came literally in the form of a huge birthday cake presented to Caroline Gordon, CHA Chairman, by show organiser Emap Connect. Retailers visiting the stand and hungry suppliers throughout Hall 2 all enjoyed a slice of the action!