As we enter the five-month countdown to Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) 2024, 157 companies have already been confirmed to exhibit, including six first timers – 24h Le Mans, The British Museum, Animaj, Cardio Bunny, Merchantwise Group and Unicast. 

Europe’s leading event for licensing and brand extension returns in a slightly earlier timeline this year – 24-26 September – and will take place at ExCeL, London. Visitors can register their interest now and will be notified automatically when registration opens in early June. 

157 exhibitors are confirmed to date, bringing thousands of brands to BLE from all categories. 

Here’s a taster: 

• From sports: UEFA Club Competitions, Tour de France, Real Madrid, and more 
• From character and animation: Aardman Animations, Crunchyroll, Hasbro, Le Petit Prince, Moonbug, Paramount, Paul Frank, The Smurfs, and more  
• From video gaming: Capcom, Sega, Pokémon, Rebellion, Sega, Bandai Namco and more 
• From publishing: Penguin Random House, Walker Books, Mercis BV (with Miffy), and more 
• From heritage/charity: Imperial War Museums, Natural History Museum, RSPB, V&A, Van Gogh Museum, and more  

BLE event director Ella Haynes: “The exhibitor list is already showing some amazing brands from across all categories which is a testament to the event’s strength within the European licensing industry – it is quite simply the only place for European retailers, manufacturers and brand owners to meet, do business and sign deals that will decide what branded products consumers will be buying from December 2024 and beyond.” 

Last year, 9,649 licensing professionals attended BLE. Visitor numbers increased by 28 per cent, and the show attracted record numbers of retailers and visitors from France, Germany, Italy and Spain (FIGS) (also up 28 per cent), showing the strong appetite for branded consumer products at retail. 

Attending retailers included buyers from Uniqlo, Zara, Amazon, Benetton, The Entertainer, ASOS, C&A, H&M, Calzedonia, Carrefour, Fat Face, Galeries Lafayette, Harrods, Aldi, Decathlon, Diechmann, Next, El Corte Ingles, Forbidden Planet, Frasers Group, Primark, Poundland, Accessorize, Marks & Spencer, Matalan, Card Factory, Hamley’s, Claire’s Accessories, HMV, Iceland, John Lewis & Partners, Legends, Lidl, Lipsy, Asda, Selfridges and many more.

Most importantly, over 5,100 meetings were pre-arranged in the show’s Event Platform (a 17% increase on 2022) and many thousands more took place onsite.

Rob Corney, group managing director at Bulldog Licensing, said: “BLE is a must-do for anyone in the business of licensing. There’s no other venue in Europe at which so many brand owners, licensees and retailers gather in the same place at the same time, giving us the perfect opportunity to showcase our property plans for the year ahead… and more.”

A reminder: 

• BLE takes place earlier this year: 24-26 September 20204
• Visitor registration opens early June – register your interest now at: https://www.brandlicensing.eu/en/attend/register-interest.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=3rd-party&utm_campaign=nam24ble-lv-pr
• European visitors are advised to book travel and accommodation as soon as possible to secure the best rate – BLE-affiliated hotels can be found here https://brandlicensingeu.bnetwork.com/