“The show exceeded our expectations” is how David Sanders, Blum UK’s sales and marketing director, described the success of the KBB Birmingham exhibition that Blum enjoyed, following its decision to exhibit in a highly-original style and format.

The biggest-ever Blum UK stand essentially took the visitor on tour of what makes Blum a world-leading innovator of furniture fittings and solutions. By the Sunday afternoon on the first day of the show, visitors queued to see the five zones that progressively told the Blum story, as trained Blum staff conducted them around.

The first part of the experience was entitled Evolution of Perfecting Motion, which traced the company’s remarkable history to date – but the subsequent zones  arguably drew even greater attention.

The second zone, Investing in Innovation, especially seemed to fascinate KBB visitors. In this section, two highly-articulate and trained apprentices from Blum’s internationally-leading training scheme in Austria gave stand visitors an understanding of the high skills to which they are trained and an understanding of how Blum secures its international future.

“It was amazing,” says sales and marketing manager Matthew Walmsley. “Our apprentices engaged easily and interestingly with our customers and certainly impressed them with what was behind the products they buy and use every day.”

Andrea Hillier, who heads up Blum UK’s unique Retail Services Division, says that she experienced the same welcome interest every day of the show in the third zone, Exceeding Expectations with Blum Services. “We opened so many retailers’ eyes to new and innovative ways in which they can connect with their customers,” she says.

Zones four and five – The Latest Blum Technology, featuring Antaro, and The Future of Perfecting Motion – were equally busy, with the Blum ‘tour’ ending with the first public exposure to the innovative Legrabox concept.