Changing rooms

It has survived wars, storms and even terrorist evacuations, yet Hotelympia has come through it all to remain one of the world's biggest hospitality trade shows. Launched at Olympia in 1935 under the name of the Hotel, Restaurant & Catering Exhibition, it attracted more than 31,000 visitors and was hailed by Caterer & Hotelkeeper as the "greatest exhibition in the history of catering".

Despite an increased audience of 34,000 visitors in 1937, the show had an enforced break during the war years but returned in 1948, when 70,000 visitors showed their support and flocked to the nine-day event. Opened by Harold Wilson, president of the Board of Trade, the show attracted 220 exhibitors, meaning that, for the first time, the show also required the gallery level of Olympia.

One long-term exhibitor who remembers this era fondly is John Gilbert of Gilberts Food Equipment. "My father, Victor Gilbert, first exhibited at Hotelympia in 1956, sharing a tiny stand with one of England's oldest family manufacturers, Instanta, which made small boilers," he says. "In 1961 I joined my father's company and at the 1962 exhibition we were one of the first companies to show a r"tisserie. One of our equipment customers, Huttons of Uxbridge, had more than 20 fish and chip shops, but insisted they couldn't sell roast chicken. At the show I persuaded them to try a Grillfix r"tisserie on loan and even gave them two chickens to try. They started the trial at 6pm and by 7.30pm they'd sold out. Not surprisingly, they came back in the next day and placed an order for 20 machines - one for each of their shops."

Peter Sayer is a veteran of 27 Hotelympia shows during his time with Benhams and, latterly, Fellows. Now 79, he's looking forward to working the stand again. He recalls the 1970s as a particularly challenging time for the show. "It was certainly memorable during the miners' strike, which meant that we weren't allowed to use any lighting on the stands. The only illumination we had was from the main lights within the hall, which were on the dim side to say the least.

"At the end of the decade the show was also subjected to many bomb threats from the IRA. Even the most innocuous call over the tannoy, such as ‘Would Mr Brown please report to the organisers' office', would send exhibitors scurrying around their stands in the hunt for suspicious packages. In the early 1980s the whole exhibition was evacuated for the first time, yet nothing was found."

In the 1980s the show had became so entrenched at Olympia that it changed its name to the one we know today. Unfortunately hindsight is a wonderful thing and, just 10 years later in 1994, the show moved across the road to Earls Court and changed its name again, albeit briefly, to The World of Hospitality.

Because of the change of venue, as well as the name, loyal visitors didn't recognise it as the original Hotelympia they held so dear and numbers fell, despite the fact that coaches were laid on to ferry bemused visitors to the new venue from Olympia. Even London's cabbies were confused, and many exhibitors and visitors were taken to the previous venue.

Royal visitors

At the end of the 1980s Hotelympia was granted two royal visits. In 1988 the Queen Mother attended the show for the first time. Peter Griffiths, salon director, remembers it well. "The salon timetable, to which we try and stick rigidly, was thrown into chaos as the Queen Mother walked the aisles," he says. "She showed a genuine interest in the salon display items and made a point of having a conversation with each and every one of us. I don't think many people noticed that we were running over an hour behind schedule."

In 1990 Princess Diana dropped in on the show to view the final of the School Meals Cook of the Year.

Given that the show runs during the British winter time, it's not surprising that the weather has played its part down the years. However, it was the storm of 1990 that caused the greatest damage. Terry Stack, marketing manager at Electrolux Foodservice, remembers it vividly. "It had been an excellent show until the Wednesday when, during the major storm, part of the roof at Olympia collapsed, which rendered two-thirds of our stand unusable."

Steve Loughton, now managing director at Enodis Distribution UK, also remembers that day: "The landlord at the pub across the road from Olympia must have thought Christmas had come early as hundreds of exhibitors and visitors crammed in within minutes of the roof coming down. There's a rumour that, for some, the roof hadn't actually hit the floor before they were enjoying their first pint."

While incidents surrounding the show may be what exhibitors and visitors remember the most, Hotelympia remains a serious exhibition that can make a company or product. Paul Shute, sales and marketing director at Elia International, recalls the 1996 show when the company launched contemporary cutlery to the UK catering market for the first time. "Prior to the show, everyone told us that contemporary designs wouldn't sell in the UK, and that traditional parish patterns were the way forward," he says. "By the end of Hotelympia '96 we'd taken many hundreds of orders and, because of that show, we now offer more than 50 ranges and styles."

Because of the continued growth of the show, Hotelympia is now moving to its third location at the purpose-built ExCel exhibition centre in the heart of London's Docklands. No name change will accompany the move, but there are promises of more space, more features and many new products. Claire Finch, exhibition director, explains: "The move of venue has helped to ensure that we can now deliver new initiatives that we wanted to implement at the show."

Additional research by Kevin Gregory