Unitas Wholesale has unveiled a new look and name for its annual trade show, which this year takes place in Liverpool on 6-7 March.
‘Connect24’ will focus on the importance of connecting the buying group’s members to their supplier partners, providing opportunities to “build relationships that will drive growth throughout 2024 and beyond”.
The event builds on the Unitas Conference held in September, where delegates heard how the Unitas membership is ‘Growing Faster’ than the wholesale sector, ‘Reaching Higher’ with their continued investments to accelerate growth, and ‘Stronger Together’ by working collaboratively with supplier partners.
Connect24 has been designed to deliver opportunities for further growth, including an enhanced out-of-home presence with suppliers such as Premier Foods and Unilever showcasing their NPD and product sampling. A new attraction this year is the introduction of the on-trade bar area, sampling NPD and demonstrating the “perfect serve”. The expansion of the Local Living retail own-brand range will also be a key feature of the show.
John Kinney, MD at Unitas Wholesale, said: “As the name suggests, connect24 is going to place even more emphasis on strengthening connections and relationships, demonstrating that we are ‘Stronger Together’. We’ve listened and adapted to ensure we’re bringing members and suppliers together in an even more mutually beneficial format – our app will allow members and suppliers to book dedicated meetings during the show, which alongside the exclusive deals, informative presentations, and evening networking, will make this a key event to drive growth in 2024.
“We have a few surprises up our sleeve, and with approximately 200 suppliers in attendance, plus a record number of members attending, connect24 is set to be our biggest and best trade event to date, beating last year’s 2.9 million cases sold.”
