A record number of visitors attended this year’s PATS Sandown, making it the biggest and busiest show in the event’s five-year history, and there was a strong garden centre buying presence over both days.
A total of 1,847 retailers visited the show, representing an increase of 8% on the number who attended PATS Sandown in 2012. The total number of visitors even outstripped that of PATS Harrogate in September, which was itself a record-breaking event that had welcomed 1,813 visitors.
The feeling from the 160 companies exhibiting was very positive, and this year’s show was the kind of boost the pet industry needed.
Ray Foard from Pet Rebellion said: “Eighty per cent of the visitors to our stand were new customers, which was great. We’ve seen a lot of garden centres, who are the main focus of our business. We’ve taken bigger orders today than ever before at PATS – two to three times bigger in fact. It’s by far our busiest show ever.”
Wild bird care products were in evidence with the Peckish stand reporting great interest.
Sam Marriage from Marriage’s Millers said: “We’ve had a great time, and the outcome has been very encouraging because we are new. We wanted to get closer to retailers and PATS has certainly allowed us to do that."
And from a visitor point of view Steve Buxton and Matt Hammond from Trago Mills Garden Centre in Cornwall added: “The pet trade is a cosy, intimate group of people and PATS suits that profile. We’ve returned to the show after missing last year and pleased to see a good variety of new products.”
