Retail Attendance Doubles at Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe

BUDAPEST, Hungary, March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Advanstar Licensing, organisers of Brand Licensing Europe and Licensing International Expo today announced that retail attendance had risen significantly at this year's Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe.

The event, which took place on the 7th and 8th March 2011 at the Royal Corinthia Hotel in Budapest welcomed visitors from 28 countries to include Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, UK, USA, Croatia and Italy.

Visitors included representatives from Poland based retail giant LPP, Magyar Hypermarket, CORA, Mikro Trading AS and Levne Knihy AS. Local and international licensees, manufacturers and agents in attendance included Egmont Hungary, Lizzycard, Cartamundi, Golden Link Europe and Henkel Magyarorszaig Kft.

Diana Dieckmann, VP Licensing Europe, Fremantle Licensing Germany GmbH commented: "The licensing industry market in Central East Europe is rapidly expanding and Brand Licensing CEE provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase our talents as license holders and 3rd party brand managers. We were able to meet potential clients face to face and demonstrate how we work to grow a brand in relative domestic markets. Brand Licensing CEE was very informal so although few meetings were pre-arranged, during the show we were inundated with additional meetings and gained some valuable leads in various product categories as well as with right holders that were interested in brand representation. Overall we found Brand Licensing CEE to be incredibly beneficial and we look forward to attending again in the future."

Matjaz Frelih, CEO of Maat Entertainment added: "We were very pleased to be exhibiting at Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe for the first time. It is essential for us to be seen at this show in order to conduct business with the right people in Eastern Europe and we had several extremely productive meetings on our booth. The level of interest in all of our properties was very positive, including UMKO, Funny Face, Pip the Cat, Secret Wings and VIPO LAND. There were many important people attending the show whom we are certain we wouldn't have met had we not exhibited at the show. We will definitely be back next year."

Other exhibitors included Performance Brands, IBML, ELC, Allsorts Licensing, Plus Licens and Studio 100 among others. Total attendance this year reached 293.

Plans are now afoot to put in place an even stronger line-up for 2012.

Humaira Kaiser, Marketing Director for Europe at Advanstar Licensing commented: "We are committed to providing a platform for our key customers to meet and do business in the CEE region. We recognise this is a diverse and challenging marketplace and want to ensure we tailor the format, timing and content to the needs of our visitors and exhibitors. We will be conducting several post-show meetings with local and international organisations, the findings of which will be used to shape an even better event in 2012."

Details of the 2012 event will be released shortly.