Featuring 15% more exhibitors than April 2023’s debut event, 2024’s celebration of the emerging car-wrapping market kicked off yesterday (3 October) for a two-day event, featuring talks from industry leaders, live wrapping demonstrations in Silverstone’s F1 pit garages, and Thursday night’s Wrap Party for guests.
With plenty of cars on show, the spirit of competition was alive at the home of the British Grand Prix, with Fespa’s own World Wrap Masters regionals taking place live in one pit garage, while attendants’ entries to the ‘Show & Shine’ competition were lined up outside, with visitors to the show invited to vote for their favourite wrap job.
Spread over two halls and two pit garages of Silverstone’s south wing, the event hosted 50 brands across 25 exhibitors, including 15 new ones, many of whom showed off brand-new launches for the event.
Film supplier William Smith 1832 launched a brand-new cast wrap, the VWrap Pro, from its in-house manufacturing brand Vion, demonstrating the new substrate on a Porche in the pit garage.
Stephen Laundon, head of sales at William Smith, told Printweek the team had seen a great start to the show.
“We’re very happy. It shouldn’t be anything that we shy away from talking about, but for us it’s very much about ROI and footfall for events like this – last year went very well, and it was a no-brainer to do it again,” he said.
“To have our own product from our own range [Vion] this year, to launch that at an event like this and reach hundreds of customers, it’s great. You need people to actually experience the differences between your product and the competitors – they have to be able to physically feel it for themselves.”
All Print Supplies (APS) itself showed off Fedrigoni’s latest heat-activated films. An extension of the printable Ultimate C50 substrate released in 2023, the new 50mic Ultimate colour-change films are designed to extend the range past livery into retail-focused colour-change work.
Tinting films were among the popular launches, with supplier Adapt Amari’s new Profilm paint protection film (PPF) accent films receiving their show debut; British manufacturer Metamark likewise launched its own new window tinting films.
Iain Wallace, Metamark’s strategic development manager, told Printweek: “Footfall has been amazing, and it’s nice to see not just our bigger customers come to see us, but to see all these smaller businesses in the industry talk to us – from our point of view, it’s essential [to be here].
“We’ve had some really great marketing for the event from Wrapfest, which has helped us drive more customers here. It’s been a great start, and should be a good few days.”
Avery Dennison teamed up with wrapping e-celebrity and entrepreneur Yianni Charalambous, who made a return to the exhibition to star in a series of business surgeries, helping attendants troubleshoot issues and extend their reach into the vehicle wrapping market.
“We’re really pleased to see the majority of our partners from the first year coming back, and to welcome new partners – it’s really exciting,” Duncan MacOwan, head of events and marketing at Fespa, told Printweek.
“Our events are very focused, and we have a loyal audience and community, and exhibitors really recognise and value that. From the conversations I’ve been having, they really appreciate the focus of this event.”
Neil Felton, Fespa CEO, added: “We love hosting Wrapfest. It’s such an energising, fascinating industry. I look at all these wrappers out on the floor, and as we’re talking there are cars whizzing past on the circuit – it’s a pretty cool place to be.
“The location is cool, but it’s very relevant to the market too – and wrapping is a massive global market, that’s growing fast. So far, things are going really well. The stands are busy, and it’s just a great, energetic show, where people are really engaged.”
