JCK New Delhi 2007 Kicks Off

JCK New Delhi kicked off Saturday to a slow start but one which promised to perk up in the forthcoming days going by the pronouncements of its organizers. Mike Allsopp, CEO Reed Exhibitions India, said that this year the show was larger with more visitors expected. The show has a 26.5 percent increase in booked space, 28 percent growth in the number of exhibitors and there were 7200 visitor pre-registrations.

Mandeep Singh, COO Reed Exhibitions India, announced that representatives from large retailers like Reliance, Pantaloons and Wal-Mart had also committed to visiting the show. This held great promise for business prospects for the over 200 companies from all over the world participating in the show, he said.

“The new dates for JCK, New Delhi – July 7-10 – are ideal,” Allsopp added. “This not only makes it India’s first B2B show, but is also the right time for retailers to place their orders for the festival and wedding season, which begins in October.” Allsopp promised to keep refining the show with feedback from exhibitors.

The first day closed with the launch of Gold Expressions 2007 by World Gold Council in association with D’damas and Fiera Di Vicenza, at a fashion extravaganza.

Departing from tradition, the WGC has launched the fashion collection in Delhi rather than Mumbai. “There was a demand for this from people in Delhi,” said WGC Managing Director Ajay Mitra. “In the JCK show we have found a fitting environment to do this.”

By Sunday, visitor traffic increased, after it started to pick up Saturday afternoon. “We have had a few trade buyers,” said an exhibitor, “But they are our existing customers, with whom we had fixed prior appointments. We are waiting for the walk-ins.” A sentiment shared by a number of exhibitors.

Milan Chokshi of Summit, a second time participant is more upbeat. “We come to this show in the hope that we will get new customers from the smaller cities and towns in the region around Delhi,” he said. “We have had a few such walk-ins and I am hopeful that traffic will pick up in the next few days.” 

The Gitanjali Group, with its powerful multi-brand presence, had announced a promotion offering retailers plane tickets worth Rs. 10,000 ($248) on cash jewelry purchases of Rs. 500,000 ($12,379), plus an additional 2 percent margin on purchases. The offer resulted in 44 promised buyers.