INDUSTRIES FAIR IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27048, 25 May 1953, Page 3

INDUSTRIES FAIR IN BRITAIN

Organisers Hope For Record Year

MANY OUTSTANDING DISPLAYS (From Our Own Correspondent.) ■a , LONDON, April 27. Britain s show window,” the British Industries Fair—opened at three sites today. At Castle Bromwich near Birmingham more than 1250 exhibitors had stands in the heavy industry section, while soft goods and lighter machinery manufacturers had displays in London at Earl’s Court and Olympia respectively. Said to cost some £10,000,000 to organise and run, the gigantic Coronation year fair is packed with examples of British inventive genius and workmanship: The annual fair is worth many millions of pounds of orders to British industry and with some 20.000 overseas buyers expected in the 11 days the fair is open, the organisers hope that 1953 will be a record year for orders.

At- most stands in London, delivery of goods was promised by sellers within a matter of weeks to buyers, and generally prices were lower than at last year’s fair. Only in one industry, the textile trade, were deliveries slower than in 1952. Last year im mediate deliveries were offered by most textile manufacturers as the trade was in the middle of a reces sion but the revival in the trade this year has meant an increasing delay in delivery dates. New Zealand Stand New Zealand’s stand in the Commonwealth section of Earl’s Court has the biggest display of manufactured goods ever sent to Britain for the fair. Although the textiles, clothing, machine parts, footwear, plastic articles and sports goods cannot compete with British manufacturers goods in price, the stand has been designed to show the diversity of New Zealand’s secondary industries and-the prestige value of the display makes it a valuable “shop window” for New Zealand manufacturers. The general theme of the New Zealand stand is the progress of the country from the Victorian era to the present day. Plaques of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II are linked to maps showing the country as it was in 1860 and modern New Zealand. A small working model of the Roxburgh hydro-electric power scheme made by the former Dunedin sculptor, John Hall, is the centrepiece of the stand. In Earl’s Court, a special section was t set aside for the prefabricated building industry. Houses on skis, and special lifts, made in asbestos, aluminium and wood and designed for arctic and tropic heat were on show and one manufacturer offered a “prefabricated town” for sale. Most could be erected by unskilled labour in a matter of hours. At Olympia the manufacturers of crockery and glass had special Coronation year displays and with the “Export Only” tags disappearing from many goods there were many attractive dinner sets for home market buyers. In Olympia were also displays of luxury yachts and launches, jewellery, clocks and toys. Throughout the acres of the exhibition halls at stands ranging from the 8.0.A.C.’s display, where a baby elephant stood advertisipg the airline’s freight service, down to ft small toy display, where packets of imitation coal could be ordered for model railways enthusiasts, hundreds of salesmen were waiting for buyers with their order books ready. Britain’s “shop window” was open for business from the world’s buyers.