Boalloy slams discount
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• Boalloy has written off a promised stand price discount at the next Motor Show, to make up for low attendance last year, as a "lame attempt from the SMMT".
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is offering exhibitors in Hall 6-8 .6/m2 off the cost of their display if they turn up at the NEC in 1992 (CM 10-16 January).
But it has turned down claims from some of the exhibitors in the bodies and trailers halls for an immediate pay-out to make up for what they say were almost record low attendances, due to poor positioning of their stands.
Gerald Broadbent of Boalloy, who sits on the bodybuilders committee of the SMMT, says discounts should apply to the "year in which you've made a loss and not be used as a carrot for the future".
He says the only way potential customers could find the bodybuilders' stands was by crossing the Ford display in the car area. "People could not find us," he says.
"If we've suffered the loss in '90, when we need the money, for God's sake give it to us now." He adds that Boalloy will probably not be at the 1992 Motor Show.
In a letter to all Hall 6-8 exhibitors on 4 January, the smmT says complaints made after the show have been considered by the appropriate committees, and they have recommended that compensation should be paid.
But because of low attendances at the event "and its adverse effect on the society's show account funds, no compensation concessions can be made at this time", it says.
The "only workable solution", says the society, is to offer a discount in 1992. The discount on a 100m2 stand
would be £500, it says, but stresses that this is a "gesture of goodwill" — not an admission of liability.
Society members paid
l'.34/rn2 for their NEC stands; non-members paid about 50% more.
Other bodybuilders in Halls 6-8 included Tipmaster, Southfields, Van Hool and Cartwright, which says that although it had a good response from the event, it might stay away in 1992. "It would have been nice to get compensation rather than what the SMMT have offered," says Cartwright.
''A lot of people have been saying they won't be back anyway."