The Executive Hire Show changes hands

UK rental exhibition the Executive Hire Show (EHS) has been sold to the Hemming Group after Robert Aplin announced his retirement.

The 11^th Executive Hire Show takes place on 8^th and 9^th February, 2017, and the new ownership was revealed at an exhibitor ‘Kick off’ meeting took at the event’s established home at the Ricoh Arena Coventry – in the heart of the Midlands.

Show director Mr Aplin used his opening address to announce his retirement from the event after ten years at the helm, and introduced the show’s new director, Craig Donovan.

The new Executive Hire Show owners, the Hemming Group, were also introduced to the delegates and the company’s group managing director Graham Bond was present to welcome the EHS exhibitors.

Mr Aplin said, “Having achieved the fantastic milestone of celebrating ten shows earlier this year – an achievement I am immensely proud of – I have decided that the time is now right for me to have some more exciting adventures before it is too late.

“The time is right to hand over the reins to Craig Donovan and the rest of the EHS and Executive Hire News team - Emma Sandy, Alan Guthrie, and Mandy Rees - who are all eager to develop the businesses further. To help guide and support them, I am confident that I have identified an ideal financial and commercial partner in Hemming Group.”

Hemming is a privately run exhibition and publishing company, established nearly 125 years ago by the family that still owns the business today. Mr Aplin added, “Having worked with Hemming for two months now, it is obvious that it shares many of the values and ideals that we possess in running and developing successful operations.

“Hemming and Brintex manages a range of complementary publications and exhibitions - several of which are also hosted here at the Ricoh Arena - and brings a great wealth of experience to our industry.”

Craig Donovan, who has been EHS commercial manager since 2012, said, “The last four-and-a-half years as Rob’s right-hand man have been tremendous. I have enjoyed being an integral part of the team, passionately driving the business forward and together making a difference every day.

“I am really going to miss working with Rob. We, the EHS team, could never replace him, nor do we want to. He has successfully figure-headed the Show for 10-years, and after Rob’s coaching and guidance over our journey together, I am looking forward to do the same for at least the next 10-years!”

The 2017 show already has 152 exhibitors in the Main Hall and the Atrium to date, which means that these areas of the event are now already 98% sold out – by Christmas the EHS team said it was anticipating that these areas will be full. Of these exhibitors, 24 so far are brand new to the event.

A new area has also been established – the ‘Hire Show Hall’ – where a direct link has been created from the Main Hall into the Lower Halls. The EHS team confirmed that the construction of this new link is almost complete and they are now taking stand bookings for the new area. The 2016 event attracted 1851 visitors.