The South West's most important food and drink trade event is back. The Source Trade Show 2027 takes place on February 2-3, 2027 at Westpoint Arena, Exeter, and if your business touches speciality food, quality drinks, catering, or hospitality in any meaningful way, this is the show to be at. Organised with backing from partners including Caterer Licensee Hotelier, Fabulous Farm Shops, and Taste of the West, The Source has built a well-earned reputation as the region's go-to gathering for producers, buyers, and operators who take their craft seriously. You can find full event details at The Source Trade Show and track it on The Source Trade Show 2027 on TradeShowIntel.
Who Comes to The Source Trade Show 2027: Buyers, Operators, and Producers Across the South West
The show draws a tightly focused crowd of people who make real purchasing decisions. Expect to find:
This is not a consumer food festival. Everyone on the floor is there with a business purpose, which makes conversations sharper and more productive than at most regional events.
What's on the Floor at The Source 2027: Artisan Producers, Catering Kit, and Drinks Worth Tasting
The show floor at Westpoint Arena covers the full spectrum of what the South West's food and hospitality economy runs on. Artisan food producers bring regional specialities, from charcuterie and cheese to baked goods and condiments, many of which are exclusive to independent trade channels. Drink producers showcase wines, spirits, craft beers, and soft drinks, often offering comparative tastings that let buyers assess products side by side rather than from a brochure.
Beyond the edible, catering equipment suppliers and food service companies fill out the floor with everything from commercial kitchen kit to packaging and disposables. Hospitality supply businesses and business services providers round out the mix, meaning a hotel operator could, in theory, source their seasonal menu ingredients, upgrade their kitchen equipment, and review their supplier contracts all in a single visit.
The show's tasting format is one of its strongest assets. Buyers can move between stands, compare flavours in real time, and make informed decisions on the spot rather than waiting for samples to arrive by post weeks later.
What Exhibitors at The Source Trade Show 2027 Need to Get Right
Lead with your regional story. The buyers at this show, particularly farm shop managers and independent retailers, are specifically looking for products with South West provenance or a strong local narrative. If your product has a regional origin, a named farm, or a traditional production method, that story should be front and centre on your stand, not buried in a brochure. Generic branding that could belong to any national supplier will get skipped.
A common mistake among first-time exhibitors here is treating every visitor the same. A school catering manager has completely different constraints from a boutique hotel buyer. Prepare different conversation tracks for your key buyer types: one focused on volume, compliance, and consistency for public sector visitors; another focused on exclusivity, flavour profile, and margin for independent retailers. Knowing which conversation you're in within the first 30 seconds will save you a lot of wasted pitch time.
If you're working the floor across both days, contact volume adds up fast. Use the Habsy App to capture buyer intent on the spot: scan a card, add a quick voice note about what they're sourcing and their buying timeline, and tag them by business type. By the end of day two, you'll have a structured follow-up list with context attached to every contact, rather than a stack of cards with nothing written on the back.
Visitor Tips for The Source Trade Show 2027: Getting the Most from Two Days in Exeter
If you run a hotel or restaurant, come with a specific brief. The show is large enough that walking in without a plan means you'll spend time on stands that aren't relevant to your operation. Before you arrive, write down the two or three product gaps you're actively trying to fill, whether that's a new local cheese supplier, a sustainable packaging solution, or a catering equipment upgrade. Focused visitors consistently leave with better outcomes than those who browse.
For pub owners and licensees, the drinks hall deserves serious time. Comparative tastings are one of the show's genuine advantages over ordering from a catalogue. You can assess a craft gin or regional cider against three competitors in the same visit, which is information that takes weeks to gather through normal sampling processes.
You'll meet a lot of people across two days, and the conversations blur quickly. Before you leave a stand, scan the exhibitor's card with the Habsy App and add a short note about what caught your attention: the specific product, the price point discussed, or a follow-up action you agreed on. It takes ten seconds and means your post-show review is based on actual notes rather than fading memory.
Why The Source Trade Show 2027 Belongs in Your February Calendar
Few regional trade shows deliver the combination of genuine product discovery, direct producer access, and real buying intent that The Source consistently offers. For South West hospitality and food businesses, the timing is deliberate: early February gives operators the chance to lock in new suppliers and refresh their offering before the season picks up. That's a practical advantage that a trade magazine or a supplier website simply cannot replicate.
If you're exhibiting with a team, set up Habsy Platform before the show so every contact your team captures across both days feeds into a shared dashboard. You'll be able to see which buyer types showed the most interest, which stands generated the strongest leads, and who still needs a follow-up call by the time you're driving home from Exeter. Visit habsy.ai to get it configured before February.
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