Brexit
Brexit challenges remain for UK companies attending European trade shows
Theo Reilly says UK companies are abandoning EU trade shows and takes a look at Barton Marine who have halted their EU exhibiting expansion due to bureaucracy
worrying trend is
A emerging for British exhibitors. While the internal exhibition industry in the UK is seeing healthy growth, the number of UK companies exhibiting in the European mainland has seen a sharp drop-off.
The Times newspaper reported in June that before Covid-19,“ about 1,400 British fashion and textile businesses visited the industry’ s major trade fairs each year”. Now, the newspaper claimed,“ the figure is closer to 300”.
Barton Marine UK sailing manufacturer Barton Marine is one of many British companies that exhibits at EU shows. For over 30 years, Barton Marine has been exhibiting at European trade shows like Metstrade( at RAI Amsterdam) and boot Düsseldorf( at Messe Düsseldorf) – major events that attract around 1,500 exhibitors from across the world.
Barton told Marine Industry News in February 2025 that the costs of exhibiting abroad had risen sharply since Brexit. Now, the company has to account for everything they bring onto the continent, down to the last lightbulb and hand-tool.
It’ s a process that adds £ 600 to the exhibiting bill – not including time lost dealing with paperwork.
All in all, it’ s a painstaking endeavour – especially for a young company that isn’ t used to the process.
It’ s a ringing endorsement of the value of exhibiting, therefore, that Barton aren’ t abandoning EU shows altogether.“ We’ re not actually thinking about not exhibiting at shows,” production director Dermot Bealey told Marine Industry News.
“ But we’ re not looking to add more shows. We would be doing more European shows if it wasn’ t for this system,” Bealey added.
The company has considered using freight shifters like Penguin, but
Left: French yacht manufacturer Prestige exhibits at boot Düsseldorf
Bealey believes this would ultimately increase the cost – and Barton would still need to produce the documentation to be added to Penguin’ s carnet. There is no skirting the bureaucracy.
Call for government action Exhibition World asked the UK’ s Association of Event Organisers( AEO) for their take on the phenomenon. CEO Anna Golden( also director of the country’ s wider-based Events Industry Alliance) told us:
“ We know from our own research that, broadly speaking, the industry is performing well. In fact, 2024 saw a significant increase in the number of exhibitions held in the UK.
“ However, there’ s no denying that Brexit has introduced trade barriers between the UK and the EU, and some concerning trends are emerging in the data. Challenges, ranging from increased paperwork to mobility restrictions, are making it harder for businesses to exhibit and operate across borders.
“ To address this, we are calling on the Government to take more decisive action to support UK businesses in attending trade shows abroad, many of which are organised and owned by UK-headquartered companies.
“ We are urging UK and EU policymakers to prioritise the establishment of a Mutual Recognition Agreement for the business events sector.”
Bealey describes the current process as“ an old traditional system”. Riddled with paperwork, red tape and wasted hours in processing facilities. The UK government is missing a trick by not helping small to mediumsized companies exhibit abroad. The sharp irony, meanwhile, is that many European trade shows are organised by UK companies. The likes of Informa and RX may rule the roost at the organiser level, but on the show floor, British exhibitors are struggling to make themselves known. EW www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 4 2025 37