The National Exhibition Centre Birmingham (NEC), Bickenhill is preparing to host the Tea & Coffee World Cup as it comes to the UK for the first time over 3-5 September 2018. The three-day event brings together the entirety of the industry’s supply chain from bean and leaf to cup.
Readers of the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal voted to hold the event in the UK to follow on from a successful three years in Singapore and Poland and will welcome over 100 exhibitors and 2,000 visitors.
Megan Freeman, Events Manager from Bell Publishing said: “We wanted to change the location of the Tea & Coffee World Cup so we put the question of where we should host the event out to the industry, and the UK was the clear winner.
“The UK has adopted the café culture, with coffee shop visitors purchasing an estimated 2.3 billion cups of coffee a year. Coffee pours a huge £8.9bn into the UK economy and last year alone saw a further 1,222 coffee shops open – an average of 3.4 new stores a per day. We are excited to be bringing the event to the ‘nation of tea drinkers’ and it seems like the natural next step for us.”
Megan added: “For us, the NEC was the perfect venue. Not only is the location so easy to get to from a national and international point of view, Birmingham is a vibrant city with friendly people, delicious food and fantastic architecture. Due to the huge amount of support we have already received from the NEC, we are sure this will be the best World Cup yet!”
The exhibition features working machinery on the exhibition floor, both raw and finished product for sampling and stocks of industrial supplies for detailed inspection, while the accompanying conference and workshops are designed for participants to gain personal and hands-on experience.
Jenny Wright, Business Development Executive, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming the Tea & Coffee World Cup to the UK and to Birmingham. It is fantastic the industry was almost unanimous in bringing the event here, and we are going to work closely with the organiser to make sure this exciting event is a success.”
