With five months to go until Brand Licensing Europe 2024, 157 companies have already been confirmed to exhibit, including six first timers.
BLE, Europe’s leading event for licensing and brand extension returns in a slightly earlier timeslot this year – 24th-26th September – and will take place at ExCeL, London. Visitors can register their interest now and will be notified automatically when registration opens in early June.
157 exhibitors are confirmed to date, bringing thousands of brands to BLE from all categories. 24h Le Mans, The British Museum, Animaj, Cardio Bunny, Merchantwise Group and Unicast will be exhibiting for the first time.
In the sports category, exhibitors include UEFA Club Competitions, Tour de France and Real Madrid. In character and animation, Aardman Animations, Crunchyroll, Hasbro, Le Petit Prince, Moonbug, Paramount, Paul Frank and The Smurfs will be attending. From video gaming: Capcom, Sega, Pokémon, Rebellion, Sega and Bandai Namco; and in the publishing category, visitors can look forward to seeing Penguin Random House, Walker Books, Mercis BV (with Miffy). Finally, in heritage/charity, exhibitors include Imperial War Museums, Natural History Museum, RSPB, V&A and Van Gogh Museum.
BLE event director Ella Haynes said: “The exhibitor list is already showing some amazing brands from across all categories which is a testament to the event’s strength within the European licensing industry – it is quite simply the only place for European retailers, manufacturers and brand owners to meet, do business and sign deals that will decide what branded products consumers will be buying from December 2024 and beyond.”
Last year, 9,649 licensing professionals attended BLE. Visitor numbers increased by 28% and the show attracted record numbers of retailers and visitors from France, Germany, Italy and Spain – also up 28% – showing the strong appetite for branded consumer products at retail.
Attending retailers included buyers from Uniqlo, Zara, Amazon, Benetton, The Entertainer, ASOS, C&A, H&M, Calzedonia, Carrefour, Fat Face, Galeries Lafayette, Harrods, Aldi, Decathlon, Diechmann, Next, El Corte Ingles, Forbidden Planet, Frasers Group, Primark, Poundland, Accessorize, Marks & Spencer, Matalan, Card Factory, Hamley’s, Claire’s Accessories, HMV, Iceland, John Lewis & Partners, Legends, Lidl, Lipsy, Asda and Selfridges.
More than 5,100 meetings were pre-arranged in the show’s Event Platform, a 17% increase on 2022, and many thousands more took place onsite.
BLE takes place from 24th-26th September. Visitor registration opens early June but visitors can register their interest now by clicking here. European visitors are advised to book travel and accommodation as soon as possible to secure the best rate – BLE-affiliated hotels can be found here.
