Source Home & Gift, which is taking place at the NEC Birmingham until tomorrow, has welcomed visitors from a wide range of retailers keen to discover the best responsible manufacturers and regions around the world.
Visitors from Morrisons, M&S, Next, AIS, B&Q, and many more have so far visited the show. Mike Dickens, senior program manager at Amazon, commented: “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.”
Day one of the show featured a spotlight on bamboo and ethical retailing. Jack Stratten, head of trends at Insider Trends led a session on ‘From sustainable to responsible: The transparent future of ethical retail’ and highlighted a range of case studies, educating buyers on the importance of transparency, conversation, collaboration, accountability and community in the future of retail.
Li Zhiyong, inspector at level 2, The Forestry Department of the Hunan Province, discussed the importance of bamboo as a material in ‘Bamboo production – Why Hunan Province leads in bamboo material production.
He said: “Bamboo crafts constitute a vital component of the consumer goods sector with China boasting the world’s largest bamboo resource and serving as a significant producer and consumer of bamboo products. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of an eco-friendly, low-carbon, and sustainable bamboo industry, along with a strong emphasis on environmental protection, and we have been diligently advancing related work in this area.”
The show opened on day two with a celebration of porcelain from the Fujain region of China, and the rich heritage of the Dehua ceramic industry – the birthplace of Chinese ceramic culture – and put the spotlight on 15 ceramic exhibitors from the region. The opening ceremony welcomed a wide range of execs from the region.
Nicola Meadows, divisional managing director for retail, manufacturing and engineering at Hyve Group, said: “This signals the start of a renewed relationship with our Chinese partners, in particular Dehua County in the Fujain Province. China has always been a significant trading partner to the UK. In the last year we have imported over £38billion worth of goods from China, making it one of our largest, and most important trading partners.
“The last few years has seen significant disruption to our global supply chains, and retail, as well as manufacturing, is in a transformation process. This is not just a transformation of supply chains but also reflects how retail and manufacturers are reacting to consumer changes, and our need to provide them with products that are on trend but made in a better way. Source Home & Gift, and indeed all Hyve retail events, create an important platform that facilitates trade in order to fuel UK retail. We see this as the beginning of our journey as we help connect UK buyers and sourcing professionals with products made responsibly from around the world.”
Huang Wenjie, senior consultant, Dehua County People’s Government, added: “Located in Fujian Province on the southeast coast of China, Dehua is a beautiful city founded over 1,000 years ago. More than 3,700 years ago, the ancestors of Dehua began to make ceramics, which became an important birthplace of Chinese ceramic culture.
“Today’s Dehua, ceramic output value of 50.2 billion yuan, is the leading industry in the county, with more than 4,000 ceramic enterprises, more than 100,000 employees, one in three permanent residents are engaged in ceramics-related occupations, more than 60% of the county’s ceramic products are exported.
“Dehua exports to more than 190 countries and regions, in 2015 the United Nations World Handicraft Council awarded Dehua the world’s only “world ceramic capital”, in 2021 Dehua kiln site was included in the “World Heritage List”. It is one of the first world cultural heritage sites of ceramic kilns.”
In the afternoon, Cassandra Stavrou MBE, founder of Proper Snacks, took to the Responsible Sourcing Stage to host ‘Business talks: Building a household brand the right way’. Cassandra outlined her entrepreneurial journey, along with her rules for business, insights on marketing, sustainability, leadership and more, which have propelled her company to over £100m in sales.
