PIF hails its ‘Meet the Buyers’ event as a great success
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The Pet Industry Federation hosted one of the largest Meet the Buyers events for the UK pet industry at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Liverpool, ahead of its Forum & Awards event.
A total of 37 manufacturers attended and each one had the opportunity to meet 13 different buyers from the UK and overseas, representing over £2bn of pet industry buying power.
Manufacturers brought their products and marketing material and were given five minutes with each buyer to ‘sell’ their product. Products ranged from bedding, raw food, dog bowls and bird food, to cages, collars, leads and small animal feed. UKTI also attended the event to offer advice to manufacturers looking to develop their export provision.
A successful networking dinner then took place in the evening at the Atlantic Tower hotel with views over the River Mersey where conversations and opportunities to create new business links could continue in a more relaxed environment.Claire Gavin, Head of Innovation & Brands at Pets at Home, said: "We thoroughly enjoyed PIF’s Meet the Buyer event and picked up some really good new leads as a result. Our industry has a lot of amazing people and many great characters in it and getting to spend time with many of them was fabulous." Rebecca Davies, from J R Pet Products, said: "An invaluable opportunity to meet manufacturers and buyers from both the UK and Europe. The networking possibilities are endless - one not to be missed!" Scott Charnock, from Igloo Pets Ltd, added: "This was the perfect relaxed forum for having the buyers’ undivided attention and extremely good quality conversations, without struggling to try and get appointments."
 Nigel Baker, PIF CEO, summed up the mood, saying: "PIF’s ‘Meet the Buyers’ event showed just how dynamic and exciting the UK pet industry is. With so many different products on show and a range of buyers keen to pick up new and innovative products for their stores, the buzz in the room was palpable.
"The feedback received has been extremely positive with both manufacturers and buyers getting so much from this concentrated afternoon of business-making. We had a waiting list of manufacturers who had hoped to attend this year, so we are already looking ahead and planning for 2016." For further details, visit www.petfederation.co.uk
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