To prove that we act local but think global, Hilton Herbs has a stand at the upcoming AETA (American Equestrian Trade Association) show which takes place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Centre, Oaks, Pennsylvania, from Saturday Jan 30th to Monday Feb 1st.  AETA describes itself as a "a not-for-profit trade association providing a strong voice for all stakeholders in the equestrian industry", thus fulfilling a similar function to the UK's British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA). Hilton Herbs' Directors, Hilary and Tony Self will be manning the stand at the AETA show.

AETA 2009

From AETA Hilary and Tony will be going 'up the road' to Hershey (where the famous American chocolate comes from) to take part in another trade show, organised by our main East coast distributor, Bradley Caldwell. BCI supply many equestrian and pet outlets and they organise two of their own trade shows (Hershey in February and Atlantic City in September) to which they invite their suppliers and their retailers.  

 The Atlantic City show is huge and always has a theme - last time Hilton Herbs took part the theme was James Bond!  Hershey is a smaller, friendlier, show and takes place at the very pleasant location of the Hershey Lodge.  Once you get used to everything being chocolate-orientated (the Hershey Lodge is on Chocolate Avenue!) its not too bad, although when we last participated we had a tin of Quality Street sweets open on the stand to show some solidarity with Cadburys, and also to show the Americans what REAL 'candy' tastes like!!

The United States is a very important (and potentially very large) market for Hilton Herbs and we have been exporting our products to the US for over ten years.  We attend 4-5 shows per year some of which are trade shows and some of which are retail shows, and upcoming shows which we are attending are Global Pet in Florida, the Equine Affaire in Columbus, Ohio, and the Rolex Three Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky.

We'll keep you posted as to how we get on and upload pics of the shows we attend.