HOYS Update

With Horse of the Year Show just around the corner we are excited to be welcoming back so many familiar faces from our competitor, tradestand and visitor bases. Once again, we’re equally thrilled to be opening our doors to many new attendees for another fantastic edition of HOYS.

We are delighted to say that this year’s Show has a wonderfully diverse range of tradestands offering our visitors and competitors a huge variety of products and services. As a pinnacle of the equestrian calendar it’s important to us to have so many loyal customers and traders. Two-thirds of our exhibitors from 2018 will be returning this year and it’s great to see that the Show remains an important platform for our exhibitors. Top equestrian brands like Holland Cooper are choosing to use HOYS 2019 to launch their new equestrian product range and other longstanding brands will be returning including Aztec Diamond, Espayo, Townfields, Wychanger, Equiport and Royal Equestrian to name a few.

It is of course disappointing that some traders have decided not to return for varying reasons, but this also encourages new and exciting brands like Gallop Equestrian and Equikro to come to HOYS. It is important to us to support new businesses and help new products come to market which is why we are proud to be welcoming brands to the Show like Lord & Lady Equestrian, EC PRO and Paragon Equestrian. Having new spaces that we can offer these exhibitors is just as vital as having returning brands to ensure the Show remains relevant and current for our customer base. The Show provides both first time and loyal traders the perfect opportunity to interact with an engaged equestrian audience.

With over 100 of our traders offering equestrian products or services and plenty more providing lovely indulgent treats this year’s Show is set to be a cracker. To see who’ll be there, visit our dedicated web page: https://hoys.co.uk/shopping/exhibitors/

We recognise that there has been some confusion over the last few weeks about our pricing and we’d like to take this chance to address that. Our tradestand holders, new and old, are hugely important to us which is why we have fixed our prices since 2016, despite rising annual rental costs from the NEC. To ensure fairness to all our customers, our prices do not change according to the type of exhibitor, no matter what product or service they are offering or how close to the show we get. The exception to this rule is our slightly reduced rate for the five long standing horseboxes who do not benefit from any further loyalty or size-based discounts that our shell scheme exhibitors can take advantage of. To ensure complete transparency we publish all our set rates clearly on our website which can be found on this page https://hoys.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HOYS-2019-Tradestand-Rate-Card.pdf.

Horse of the Year Show has inevitably evolved and transformed over the years. The changes to the Show are fundamentally based on the needs of our loyal base of competitors, visitors and tradestand holders within the scope of the venue. The recent changes to the layout of the retail village were due to changes at the NEC which were outside of our control.

The digital age has presented many shoppers with the opportunity to go online and search out the best deals. This has of course made it challenging to both ourselves and our loyal exhibitors as they struggle to compete. However online does not offer the experience that you can have when you visit the Show amongst fellow passionate equestrians. It’s more than just a trip to the shops; it’s a chance to see friends over a glass of bubbles, to watch amazing displays, to hear from some top celebrities and a chance to see the products. Feel them. And most importantly speak to the traders who have invested their time, effort and money into them.

This year’s ticket sales and increased engagement on social media indicate that the Show is going to be one of the best yet. We cannot wait to welcome all of our visitors, competitors and tradestand holders next week but tickets are selling out fast so don’t miss your chance to join them.

We are always happy to welcome new retailers to the Show to find out more about booking your spot get in contact with our Tradestand Manger.

Grandstand Media Ltd.