Retail Attendance Doubles at BLC&EE

Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe Expo and Conference opened in Budapest yesterday morning, welcoming exhibitors and visitors from across the region.  Retail attendance on the first day more than doubled compared to last year, and visitor

April 6, 2018

Brand Licensing Central & Eastern Europe Expo and Conference opened in Budapest yesterday morning, welcoming exhibitors and visitors from across the region.  

Retail attendance on the first day more than doubled compared to last year, and visitors came from 20 different countries. Among the retailers and licensees were representatives from Egmont, the retailer LPP, Argus, Geekshop, Blues Clothing, Formatex, Lizzycard, Sega Europe, Unicef, Prava, Maygar Hypermarket and Cartoon Planet.

Breaking news from the show floor yesterday includes the first Russian deal for

Rebecca Bonbon

with stationary licensee Academy Group; the global launch of

Fiona and the Funky Pirates

by Cop Corp, the first spin off from its successful Barcode Kitties brand; and Plus Licens announced a line of

Star Wars apparel

going into the huge pan-European fashion retailer, Reserved.

In the Licensing Academy, Planet Retail’s Milos Ryba forecast the continuing dominance of Schwarz Group in the region and presented material

from the company’s recent report identifying the opportunities for direct-to-retail deals in different categories and retail sectors in the region.  Nick Walters (MTV) and Morten Geschwendtner (Kidz Entertainment) gave case studies of launching successful brands in Russia and, in doing so, highlighted the tremendous excitement surrounding the Russian market and its potential, which both commentators agreed was significant but as yet untested.

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