report from the Associated Buyers show

It's not too often I make it to a distributor show. I was glad to make the quick drive down to Portsmouth yesterday to attend the third annual Associated Buyers tabletop show.

Not to get sidetracked, but I do travel to this seaside town quite often. I was just there last weekend for lunch and some beverages, and one of my favorite places to eat breakfast and lunch is the Friendly Toast. So I feel that I have a good lay of the land of this quaint New England town. But one thing that throws me, a Midwesterner, for a loop is the traffic circles combined with the median. It's like the one-two punch. You see it coming but you can't do anything about it. So after driving by the Frank Jones Center not once but twice, I finally made it to the sold out show.

For the the specialty food distributor, this was their largest show to date—with 170 participating vendors. Last year's show was 120 and back in 2007, the show's first year, there were 60 vendors on hand.

This year's show was at maximum capacity, and the plan is to keep the show about the same size for years to come.
About 170 vendors packed the space—20 more than expected, and there were vendors who were turned away because of the lack of space. I was there, so I can attest, there were companies in every nook and cranny.
Karta Owens, owner of the specialty food distributor, would like for the annual show to remain the same size in order for it to be a doable, one-day show. “If we made it too big, people may not come. I want the customers, the retailers, to have time to get through everything, and I want the vendors to get the chance to talk to everyone,” he said.
About 500 retailers had preregistered for the event, and the show had a steady stream of walk-in attendees, Aurise Randall, director of marketing for Associated Buyers, told me.
The show featured vendors new to the industry, suppliers new to Associated Buyers, and long-time suppliers with new and tried-and-true products.
First-time exhibitors included Naturally Nora line of all-natural baking mixes; Tizane Beverages ready-to-drink, 100 percent organic, all-natural, caffeine free beverages sweetened with blue agave; Culinary Collective line of Spanish specialties and its sister company Zocalo Gourmet for South American specialty foods and Kathie’s Kitchen Super Seedz seasoned pumpkin seeds.