'England is also embracing the battery bike en masse!'

From October 23 to 25, the British city of Coventry was once again packed with English blinds specialists. Indeed, the British Blinds & Shutters Show enjoyed massive interest, much to the delight of three Dutch exhibitors. One of those three was BREL Nederland BV, which managed to steal many hearts with its BREL HOME concept. 

'Just crossing the road is out of the question'

For BREL, it was the third BBSS, but the first after the Brexit. That has had quite an impact on travel from the Netherlands to England, observes Erik Budding. "Just crossing over is no longer an option. We obviously have a big load of equipment to take with us, such as our booth and all the products we wanted to show there at the fair. All that has to be officially exported these days."

Good preparation is half the battle

Because of their trade show experience, Erik Budding and Reinoud Arts were able to prepare their presence in England well. "Our stand is completely modular and it can be easily built up by two people," says Reinoud Arts. "Especially for England, we obviously have all expressions in the booth in English, right down to the special leaflets we created for this edition of the expo. Our booth was not huge, but visitors really stepped inside BREL and our way of demonstrating clearly appealed to them. A nice bonus was that we had focused on battery motors, so there were no problems with cabling." 

England wants battery engines

"Whereas in the past at the British Blinds & Shutters Show we had to try pretty hard to explain what battery motors are and what you can do with them, there this year it seemed like we were a special attraction," Budding observes. "England wants battery motors! We were able to draw that conclusion. People are familiar with the product and are just looking for reliable suppliers who are able to think along with us about integrating these motors into the products that are common here." 

"We noticed a special interest in our Triangle motor for triangular pleated or honeycomb blinds," adds Arts. "The reason is obvious: triangular windows are much more common in England than in ours. That there is now finally a motorized solution for a window shape that is so common is the mecca for the British specialist trade. There was also a lot of interest in our Q-Blind motors for pitched roofs. Also logical, because just look at how many conservatories, small or large, are attached to English houses!" 

"Visitors to the booth were very appreciative of the overall picture we displayed at the show," observes Arts. "The combination of easy to install and use battery motors with our BREL HOME app for control was very much to their liking. The British blinds specialist has undoubtedly seen the light at this British Blinds & Shutters Show." 

Unknown makes unloved

Solar solutions are still a case of "unknown makes unloved" in the UK, Budding observes. "There is a prejudice regarding the application of solar panels in relation to the type of weather here. We were able to make it perfectly clear to those who asked questions about it that our solar panels also function excellently in typical English weather. It takes some time, but solar will soon become commonplace here as well." 

BREL recently revamped its solar panel program. "Our standard panels are provided with a clear plastic protective layer that filters more UV light. In the same version, we now also have a double-width solar panel that yields as much as 10 watts. This is ideal for the new 50 Nm battery motor for awnings that is coming. Also, we can now supply solar panels without housing that can be mounted directly on the hood."

The fair in Coventry has been a great success for BREL, Budding and Arts observe. "We have a large number of high-quality leads coming in and we are looking forward to our new UK customers!"