The Business Design Centre, London, was packed to the rafters once again for Exclusively Housewares this week, with suppliers and retailers crossing the country to mull over the latest trends at the forefront of the homewares industry.
The theme for this year's show was 'Design, Colour and Function for the home' and exhibitors certainly took this on board, with a variety of innovative new designs on display as well as stands bursting with colour. Bold, bright shades took centre stage once again, though this year also saw a return to more muted metallics as well as classic stainless steel.

For many suppliers the show proved an ideal platform for networking with top clients, with the central London location providing an ideal port of call for the industry's biggest retailers, including John Lewis, Amazon and Homebase, as well as hundreds of independents. "It's a brilliant show for networking and socialising," Hannah Lane from Grunwerg told DIY Week, "it pulls in the big clients from London and, for us, it's more about networking and making contacts rather than writing business.

"The format is very informal, which makes the show stand out from others and makes it very easy to connect with people, which can be harder at the larger shows."

Brabantia, too, was full of praise for the show, with national accounts manager Dale Hammon telling DIY Week: "We've been really impressed with the calibre of the buyer this year and have had some very positive feedback. Something I've noticed is that there are more electronic suppliers here, still coming under the housewares umbrella, but an interesting developing trend.

"We've been exhibiting at Exclusively for more than ten years, and in the past we've always had a mixture of new and existing products on stand, but this year our stand is made up of entirely new products. It's been very well received."

The show, now in its twelfth year, sold out just four months after its close last year, with several new and existing exhibitors taking space.

· For a more detailed account of this year's Exclusively Housewares, see the June 28 issue of DIY Week.