The Canterbury Home Show is scheduled to go ahead next month and has attracted increased interest from Auckland exhibitors after a successful show in Auckland last week.The Auckland Home Show ran from September 8 to 12, with more than 40,000 visitors thro
The Canterbury Home Show is scheduled to go ahead next month and has attracted increased interest from Auckland exhibitors after a successful show in Auckland last week.
The Auckland Home Show ran from September 8 to 12, with more than 40,000 visitors through the doors to look at the wares of 500 housing exhibitors.
The Canterbury Home Show is due to take place on October 15 to 17 at the CBS Canterbury Arena in the Christchurch area of Addington.
Organiser Exhibitions and Events New Zealand exhibition director Amanda Magnus told NBR no exhibitors had pulled out after the recent earthquake and the show would go ahead.
“We’ve been speaking to a number of exhibitors and I have a sales manager down there on the ground, “ Ms Magnus said.
“Everybody wants the show to go ahead. We’ve had a number of enquiries from new companies here in Auckland who want to do the Home Show at the moment but we’re a bit space poor because we're pretty much sold out.”
Metallica concerts at the CBS Canterbury Arena stadium later in September are also going ahead.
Traders at the Auckland Show, the largest of its kind in Australiasia, reported stronger buying interest from visitors than last year.
Kitchen and bathroom distributor and retailer Applico said its sales were up 28% compared to last year’s show.
“We were a bit apprehensive putting such a large investment into the show but it definitely paid off,” Applico managing director Mark Jones said.
“[On Saturday] we had our largest single day’s sales ever at the Auckland Home Show and while there was no doubt a bit of purchasing to beat the GST rise, the tone was very positive and there were large numbers of people who came to the show to buy.”
The Street of Homes exhibit featuring examples of built portable homes by companies such as Strawberry Homes and Go-Homes was a popular exhibit.
Of the 500 exhibitors at the Auckland show companies displaying goods included kitchen and bathroom fitout businesses, roofing companies such as Solarchem, decking, soft furnishings such as Venluree blinds, glass treatment such as Diamond Fusion, Bedpost, home audio such as Bose, letterboxes, tile restoration company Grout Pro and many more.
One exhibit that drew a big crowd, after the many long lines for coffee stands, was a freestanding bed/desk Hiddenbed. Demonstrators showed how the beds could be stowed and transformed to a desk and back to a bed quickly while leaving a computer and glass of water on the desk.
A number of green and eco-friendly exhibitors were present such as home gardening companies like organic vegetable gardens Patch from Scratch, Ebode sustainable homes and WormsRus domestic compost bins.
There was a full schedule of seminars running throughout the event’s five days, including Green Living, Home Design and Property Know-How which featured talks including maximising your investment property returns and property, tax and asset protection.
