Big Focus on Responsible and Quality Sourcing at Source Home & Gift
The second edition of Source Home & Gift, a new responsible sourcing show that ran from Sept. 3-6 in parallel with the Autumn Fair at NEC Birmingham, saw over 350 international exhibitors from 14 different countries including Bangladesh, China, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uganda, U.K., Uzbekistan and Egypt cutting deals with key British retailers, brands and contractors.
Suzanne Ellingham, director of sourcing at Source Home & Gift, hailed the success of the fair as a vote of confidence in the British retail sector as well as a demonstration of resilience among global manufacturers that prevailed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Billed as a trade show “for brands and retailers to access responsible manufacturers and be one step closer to true transparency in their supply chain,” Ellingham said her team selected the best manufacturers from around the world by working closely with global authorities and industry bodies.
Take China, for example, where over 60 percent of the exhibitors come from. Source Home & Gift worked with the Department of Commerce in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces to bring some of the most prolific suppliers in specific sectors.
Ceramics has been a highlight this edition thanks to the participation of 15 top manufacturers from Dehua, a county under Quanzhou in Fujian. The area is known to be the birthplace of Blanc de Chine due to the city’s long history with global trade that dates back to the Song Dynasty.
Huang Wenjie, a senior consultant of Dehua County People’s Government, said Dehua’s annual ceramic output value is around 50.2 billion renminbi, or $6.8 billion. More than 60 percent of the county’s ceramic products are for export. It aims to build a 100 billion renminbi ($13.6 billion) ceramic industrial cluster by 2027.
The other key feature of the fair was the presence of bamboo products from Hunan province.
According to Li Zhiyong, inspector at level 2 of the Forestry Department of Hunan Province, demand for such eco-friendly, low-carbon and sustainable material has seen explosive growth since the global trend of “plastic bans and restrictions” gained momentum. With bamboo forests covering over 12,200 square kilometers, Hunan at the moment boasts more than 4,000 bamboo processing enterprises.
Ellingham added that not only are these exhibitors best in class, but they are also equipped with certificates that enable them to trade seamlessly under British regulations.
“I think buyers who came were just genuinely quite surprised that we’ve done due diligence. I always remember I had a conversation with a big buyer about a large sourcing show in Europe, and they said that they could go there. They could find 15,000 manufacturers that they actually wanted to work with, but maybe only one of them would make it through their procurement process. So by just asking these guys to have the right certification, it means they’re likely to do business faster,” said Ellingham.
For newcomers, Ellingham said the fair offers at least two or three sessions a year on how to sell to U.K. buyers.
“We talk to them about trends and the mindset of a buyer. These sessions are incredibly useful for them and there is a direct correlation between the companies that attend those sessions and how good of a show they had this season. In general, it will take about three shows for buyers to start to really recognize some of these guys,” added Ellingham.
For more industry insight, the fair on Sunday invited Jack Stratten, head of trends at Insider Trends, to take the audience through a host of case studies on the importance of transparency, conversation, collaboration, accountability and community in the future of retail.
On Monday, Cassandra Stavrou, founder of Proper Snacks, shared about her entrepreneurial journey while revealing her “rules for business,” tangible insights on marketing, sustainability, leadership and more, which have propelled her company to over 100 million pounds ($125 million) in sales.
The fair attracted buyers from retailers and brands including Amazon, Disney, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Morrisons, John Lewis, Jojo Maman Bebe, Ohh Deer, Dobbies, Dunelm, Next, B&Q, Card Factory, Ridleys Games and Alzheimer’s Society, a charity that vows to help end the devastation of dementia.
Mike Dickens, senior program manager at Amazon, noted that Source Home & Gift is “a great chance to meet lots of potential domestic and international suppliers in one place. Early face-to-face interactions with suppliers give you a good opportunity to build trust and rapport before getting into business together.”
Claire Bagnall-Hunt, senior commercial trading executive at Alzheimer’s Society, added, “We’re looking for ethical and responsible suppliers that are based in the U.K., particularly those with on-trend products, and so we were very interested in attending Source Home & Gift. We’ll definitely be coming again for February’s edition to find even more U.K.-based suppliers.’’
An emerging trend Ellingham observed from the fair is that buyers are looking to de-risk their portfolio, which means “they’re looking to work with fewer people and put more orders through them.”
While headlines around major companies moving production out of China have been all over the news in recent years, Ellingham said the reality is that over 90 percent of the orders still go to China.
“China is our fourth largest import partner. For the last four quarters, we’ve imported 38 billion pounds [$48 billion] worth of goods from China. So the reality is they are a major trading partner. Whatever is happening in the media happens in the media, but from what we’re seeing people still want to work with our manufacturers. From our side, it’s more about making sure we bring the right people to the show,” she added.
Victor Du, marketing director at Made-in-China.com, a Nanjing-based B2B platform that connects millions of global buyers with Chinese manufacturers, observed that U.K. buyers show great interest in products with trendy color combinations, as well as innovative items at competitive price points.
As the first international trade event that he attended since the Covid-19 pandemic, Du brought a cohort of top-selling products to the fair. He added that the platform has been working on curation to help buyers identify great products out of millions of listings with the MEI Prize, a Chinese equivalent of the Red Dot Design Award, Du said.
According to Ellingham, Source Home & Gift was created post-pandemic to seize the opportunity in the market at a time when “so many manufacturers [are] having their supply chains disrupted, losing orders, and a reluctance from U.K. buyers to travel as much.”
“There’s also an increasing requirement from those buyers and consumers to have products that are made in a better way. So we saw the opportunity 18 months ago to launch something that would create a platform for good manufacturers to sell to people,” she added.
Looking ahead, Ellingham said she is looking to make tableware a defining feature for the next edition. She is also in talks with several other provinces in China that are known for quality silk products and printing capabilities about bringing some of their top companies over to Birmingham.
“The other section I can see really growing is pet gifting. We have about 15 manufacturers here that are some of the largest pet gift manufacturers in China. And that’s one of the biggest categories in retail at the moment. It’s recession-proof. People in the U.K. spend as much on their pets as their kids,” she added.
Overall, with Source Home & Gift, British buyers don’t need to make three trips to the other side of the world to find a product. “Maybe when they make that trip, it’s about cementing a relationship,” added Ellingham.
