| Next edition | 5–7 Apr 2027 · ExCeL London |
|---|---|
| Starting price | £3,950+ |
| Venue | ExCeL London |
| Next edition | 5–7 Apr 2027 |
| Visitors | 30,000+ |
| Suppliers | 1,500+ |
| Quote turnaround | 48hr |
IFE Stand Builders: ExCeL Logistics, the Trade Buyer, and What Wins Listings
IFE, the International Food & Drink Event, is the UK's largest trade fair for food and drink product sourcing, held at ExCeL London as the centrepiece of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week alongside IFE Manufacturing, HRC, The Pub Show and more. Across three days it draws tens of thousands of buyers — retailers, wholesalers, importers, distributors and foodservice professionals — to around 1,500 suppliers from across the world.
The brief here is sampling plus selling: buyers decide with their mouths as much as their eyes, so the stand has to present your range cleanly, let people taste, and make it easy to talk listings, distribution and orders. With an international, sourcing-focused crowd moving fast across a huge floor, the stand has to make every relevant buyer who stops count.
Because it's a product-discovery show, clarity and presentation matter: a buyer should grasp your category and what's new from the aisle, then taste their way to a conversation.
For a food or drink brand that means a stand built to sample and sell: present the range, make tasting easy and hygienic, and give your team room to talk listings against a busy, international floor. The exhibitors who leave with listings design for the taste and the deal together.
Building at ExCeL London: the rules that shape your stand
ExCeL is a pillar-free hall with around 10m of clear internal height, but your stand does not get all of it. For space-only stands the working height limit at most ExCeL shows is 6m, and anything ExCeL classes as a complex structure — double-deckers, heavy suspended elements, long unsupported spans — triggers a formal sign-off you need to budget time for, not just money.
Complex designs must be submitted with engineering calculations applying a minimum factor of safety of 1.5. An independent structural engineer reviews the drawings and, if satisfied, issues a Certificate of Structural Adequacy at design stage, which releases your Certificate to Build; the same engineer inspects the stand on site during build-up before you can open. Miss a calculation or submit late and you do not build.
Overhead rigging is controlled tightly: all primary rigging to the ceiling is installed exclusively by ExCeL's own team, ordered through ExCeL's webshop and confirmed around 28 days before tenancy for the advance rate. Lightweight static items hang from drop wires up to 50kg; heavier loads are separate, costlier orders.
The smaller rules catch people out too: platforms above 170mm need ramped, accessible access; solid walls along an open gangway edge are generally not allowed; only water-based paint may be used on site; and every structure must be fully self-supporting. We design to all of this from the first sketch and submit the venue paperwork, so the build you approve is the build that opens.
What a winning IFE stand needs
The stands that win listings do three things: they show the range so a buyer grasps it from the aisle, they make sampling effortless and hygienic, and they give you somewhere to sit and talk terms. We design a clear product display, a serving or tasting point with the right preparation, refrigeration and waste provision built in, and a meeting spot for the order and distribution conversation — plus discreet storage so stock and packaging never clutter the shop front.
Food safety and practicality shape the design more than at most shows: where you wash, chill, heat and bin determines the layout, so we plan the services and hygienic finishes from the first sketch and order everything through ExCeL's contractors in good time.
Branding has to read at a glance on a vast floor: a buyer should know your category and what's new before they reach you, so we give the range bold, legible signage rather than crowding it with detail.
Sampling is the sale — design for it
Buyers commit to products they've tasted, so the sampling experience is the heart of the stand. We design the serving flow so a queue moves, the product is presented at its best, and your team can sample and sell at the same time without the stand descending into chaos at peak. Power, water and refrigeration are scoped against what you're serving and ordered in good time, because a sampling stand that can't keep product cold or clean simply doesn't work.
For international suppliers exhibiting within a country or regional pavilion, we design a stand that holds its own beside its neighbours while fitting the pavilion's shared rules and identity.
What an IFE stand costs
A turnkey stand typically runs roughly £3,950–£12,500 for a compact custom build, £12,500–£28,000 for a mid-size build with a serviced sampling area and meeting space, and £28,000 and up for a flagship build. The quote is turnkey — design, build, graphics, lighting, delivery to ExCeL, install, dismantle and the venue paperwork are all included — and the sampling fit-out, refrigeration and bespoke display usually move the number.
Because much of the value is in the listings and distribution deals that follow, the spend that pays back is in a sampling setup that works smoothly and a stand that looks as quality as the product tastes — not in scale for its own sake.
Stand sizes and layouts
Stands run from compact spaces for first-time and artisan producers up to large builds for established brands and within national pavilions. The layout balances display, sampling and selling: an open frontage and clear range signage to pull buyers in, a serving point that doesn't dam the aisle, and a calm spot to write an order. We size and arrange the stand around your range, your sampling needs and how many buyers you want to handle at once.
Branding and clarity earn their place on a vast international floor: a buyer should know your category and origin before they reach you, so we give the range bold, readable signage rather than burying it in detail.
Across three days a stand that lets several buyers taste and several conversations run at once turns a big floor's footfall into real listings, so we design for flow and staffing as much as for looks.
Getting into ExCeL: build-up timing
IFE sits in a busy April slot at ExCeL during a large co-located week, so material-handling, rigging, the electrical contractor and sampling services book up early and late orders attract surcharges. We confirm your space-only window, order rigging at the advance rate, coordinate power, water and refrigeration with the appointed contractor, and crate to a slot that lands the stand finished and ready before the doors open.
We coordinate the sampling services specifically — supply, drainage and waste — because these are easy to overlook at booking and expensive to add once a busy build-up has started.
Reusing your stand between editions
Food and drink brands exhibit across a calendar of trade shows, so a modular, reusable stand is excellent value. We store the core and refresh the graphics, range display and sampling layout for each show, keeping your services plan on file — so you can exhibit across IFE and other events with a setup that already worked hygienically and practically, rather than rebuilding each time.
Next step for your IFE stand
Send us your space size, hall position and goals for IFE. You'll get a custom 3D concept and a fixed, all-inclusive quote within 48 hours — designed to ExCeL's rules, with structural sign-off built into the timeline if your design needs it. We build in-house and install at ExCeL London, so the stand you approve in the rendering is the stand that opens.
We also design and build exhibition stands for other major UK shows — see the full show calendar for food, drink & hospitality and beyond, all with the same in-house team, fixed all-in pricing and full venue paperwork.