PATS 2025 Field Report: Inside the UK’s Record-Breaking Pet & Aquatics Trade Show at the NEC
Field report compiled from photographs taken on site at PATS 2025, the Pet & Aquatics Trade Show, held 28–30 September 2025 in Hall 1 of the NEC Birmingham, UK. All photographs reproduced here are field images from the author’s on-site collection, and the observations in this report are limited to what those photographs visibly support. Show statistics, award results and commercial details are drawn from the public sources listed in the Sources section at the end of this article.
Executive summary
PATS 2025 was, by every publicly reported measure, the largest edition in the show’s history. According to the official post-show announcement published by the organisers on 3 October 2025, the first-ever PATS at the NEC Birmingham attracted 6,021 visitors across the three days — a 70% increase on the previous year — together with a record 445 exhibitors representing 15 countries and 317 overseas visitors, up 169%. The New Product Showcase received a record 450 entries, and the organisers reported that 67% of exhibiting brands (245 companies) had already booked stand space for PATS 2026 before the show had even closed.
Walking the aisles of Hall 1 across the three days, the scale was unmistakable. The show floor was dense with shell-scheme stands and space-only booths spanning dog food, cat care, small animal supplies, bird food, grooming, aquatics, water gardening and reptile products. A dedicated Aquatics Zone anchored the specialist end of the hall, while the New Starter Zone gave first-time and young brands a visible platform in the middle of the show. PATS also co-located with BETA International, the UK’s leading equestrian and country trade exhibition, which ran in Hall 2 of the same venue — a pairing the organisers said delivered “unrivalled sourcing opportunity” for retailers stocking both sectors.
This report is organised into three layers: first, the verified facts and figures behind the 2025 edition; second, a photographed walkthrough of the floor, category by category; and third, practical takeaways for pet retailers and brands planning to attend future editions. Every photograph in this article comes from the author’s on-site collection taken during PATS 2025, and is clearly captioned as such.
About PATS and the 2025 edition
What PATS is
PATS — the Pet & Aquatics Trade Show — is the UK’s dedicated trade exhibition for the pet industry, bringing together retailers, distributors, wholesalers and suppliers under one roof. The show is designed for trade visitors rather than consumers: qualifying pet retailers, groomers, garden centres, aquatics specialists and industry professionals attend to source new ranges, meet suppliers, compare products physically and place orders. The official event tagline is that PATS is “where the Pet & Aquatics trade meet to do business.”
The show is organised by Impact Exhibitions & Events, part of Raccoon Media Group, a specialist events and media business founded in 2018. Raccoon Media Group acquired PATS in 2024 as part of the formation of its Animal Health Division, which also oversees the National Equine Show and BETA International. The 2025 edition was therefore the first run under Raccoon’s ownership following the acquisition, and the first time the event had taken place at the NEC after many years at its previous long-standing venue.
Dates, venue and layout
- Dates: Sunday 28 September to Tuesday 30 September 2025 (three days, including a weekend day — a deliberate format that lets independent retailers attend without closing their shops midweek).
- Venue: Hall 1, NEC Birmingham, Pendigo Way, B40 1NT. Hall 1 of the NEC was used for PATS for the first time in 2025, a change the organisers promoted heavily in the run-up to the show.
- Co-location: BETA International, the UK’s leading equestrian and country trade exhibition, took place simultaneously in Hall 2, with a single visitor badge granting access to both events on the days they overlapped.
The move to the NEC was itself significant for the industry. Birmingham sits at the heart of the UK’s transport network, with the NEC’s own railway station and direct motorway access, and several visitor testimonials published by the show organisers specifically praised the easier journey. One quoted visitor, Giuseppe Bloom-Mangione of London-based Muthapuppa, remarked before the show that “getting to the show in future will certainly be easier for me, and for many others, I expect, when it moves to the NEC.”
The show in numbers (as officially reported)
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|
| — | — | — |
| Total visitors, 28–30 September 2025 | 6,021 | Official post-show release, 3 Oct 2025 |
| Visitor growth vs. 2024 | +70% | Official post-show release |
| Overseas visitors | 317 (+169% vs. 2024) | Official post-show release |
| Exhibitors | 445, from 15 countries | Official post-show release |
| New Product Showcase entries | 450 (record) | Official post-show release and awards article |
| Exhibitors rebooked for PATS 2026 by show close | 245 brands (67% of exhibitors) | Official post-show release |
| New companies expressing exhibiting interest | 50+ | Official post-show release |
| Halls used | Hall 1 (PATS), Hall 2 (BETA International) | PATS show news, 29 Sep 2025 |
The organisers described the event as “the biggest in PATS history.” Attendance of 6,021 represents a step-change for the show, and the international visitor uplift of 169% underscores the growing global reach of the UK’s leading pet trade event. The record 450 New Product Showcase entries also signals a healthy product development pipeline across the British pet industry — a point reinforced by the sheer volume of “New Product Showcase Winner” plaques visible around the floor, several of which appear in the photographs in this report.
Arrival and first impressions: Hall 1 at the NEC
The NEC concourse
The first thing a visitor notices on arrival at the NEC’s Hall 1 is the scale of the venue’s entrance architecture. The concourse outside the hall is a bright, modern transit space with glass partitions, structural columns and high wall panels in blocks of purple, pink and orange — the NEC’s signature colour scheme. On the morning of the show, the area was crowded with attendees and exhibitors in business-casual dress, almost all of them wearing the same yellow-and-black trade visitor lanyards that identify registered participants.
This pre-show moment is worth describing because it frames how the event was experienced. This was not a show you queued for at a rural venue with limited catering; it was an exhibition day in a purpose-built international convention centre, complete with on-site Starbucks outlets and digital signage advertising local amenities, including a drive-through coffee shop in East Car Park 3 visible on screens beside the hall entrance. For exhibitors arriving with stands to build and retailers arriving with order books to fill, the professional setting set the tone immediately.
The hall entrance and PATS 2025 branding
Directly at the entrance to the hall, a large digital header in the show’s teal-and-cyan brand colour carried the words “Welcome to PATS 2025, The Pet & Aquatics…” above the security shutters, alongside the NEC’s red entrance pillar marked “Hall 1”. The official branding matched the show’s printed material — the logo, the dates, the venue name and the show website (patshow.co.uk) all appeared consistently across digital screens, printed signage and the show guide that visitors carried around the floor.
Inside, the show’s own registration and information desk sat in a prominent position on the hall’s blue carpet. The desk carried the full event identity: “PATS 2025 — Pet & Aquatics Trade Show, 28–30 September, NEC Birmingham,” with a backdrop featuring the silhouettes of a dog and birds. This is the image visitors will recognise from the show’s marketing, and it was one of the most photographed spots in the hall on day one.
In front of the desk, a KozeePet team member in a hoodie emblazoned with the brand’s purple-and-orange logo and the tagline “Yorkshire born and bred” chatted with a visitor — a small but telling detail of how UK regional brands use PATS to put a face to their products. The moment also illustrates a broader pattern observed across the hall: much of the show’s value happens in these short, friendly conversations at desks, counters and coffee tables, not just in formal order-writing meetings.
Marketing beyond the hall: the Pawfect billboard
One of the more unusual sights in the on-site photograph collection is not inside the hall at all. A large, two-sided outdoor digital billboard near the venue promoted Pawfect, a pet food brand exhibiting at the show, with the messages “100% NATURAL HUMAN GRADE FOOD, TREATS & SUPPLEMENTS” and “EXPLORE THE WORLD’S WIDEST PORTFOLIO OF FREEZE DRIED PRODUCTS,” together with the call to action “VISIT US AT STAND B15 & A18” and a BRC Food certification mark displayed within the creative.
Outdoor media is not the norm for a trade show like PATS, which suggests how seriously at least one exhibitor took the event’s buyer traffic. It is also a reminder that the commercial activity of the show extended onto the approaches to the venue itself, and that a well-placed billboard could reach both pet trade visitors and equestrian trade visitors heading to the co-located BETA International in Hall 2.
Co-location with BETA International
The co-location with BETA International was one of the defining features of PATS 2025. BETA International is the UK’s leading equestrian and country trade exhibition, and under Raccoon Media Group’s ownership — which oversees both events under its Animal Health Division — the two shows ran side by side in adjacent halls. The organisers’ pre-show messaging was explicit: “PATS 2025 and BETA International offer retailers unrivalled sourcing opportunity,” and a single badge gave access to both events on the overlapping days.
For retailers whose shops serve both the pet and equestrian/country markets — and there are many such combined stores across rural Britain — the arrangement was a practical masterstroke: one journey, two sourcing shows. Visitors quoted in the show’s own news coverage described spending the full three days at PATS and still not seeing everything, and the ability to add the equestrian hall to the same trip only increased the value of the visit.
The New Product Showcase and PATS 2025 New Product Awards
How the showcase works
The New Product Showcase is PATS’s flagship innovation feature: every entry must be a product launched to the trade within the qualifying window, and the showcase display groups them in one place so retailers can scan genuinely new lines quickly. For 2025 the showcase received a record 450 entries. Judging was carried out by a panel of expert pet retailers who arrived early at the show on Sunday 28 September, scoring entries against criteria including product innovation, design, quality, packaging, value for money and sustainability.
The awards — the PATS 2025 New Product Awards, sponsored by pbwnews (Pet Business World news) — were presented at 2.30pm on the Sunday by David Rees, editor of pbwnews, and Gordon Thomas, PATS 2025 event director. The Aquatics Zone had its own awards, presented at 3.30pm the same day.
The full list of 2025 New Product Award winners
The following winners are as published in the official awards announcement (28 September 2025). Judges’ comments are abridged from the same source.
| Category | Winning product | Company (stand) |
|---|
| — | — | — |
| Cat Accessories & Toys | Pidan Tofu and Cassava Cat Litter | Cococat & Pidan (K90) |
| Cat Food Products | Cat Functional Topper Supplements | Karnlea (A70) |
| Dog Food Products | barkinBISTRO Pancreatic Support | barkinBISTRO (L89) |
| Dog Treat Products | BrewBix Dog Treat Biscuits Trial Box | BrewBix (E99) |
| Dog Accessories & Toys | The DOOG Stick Family | IGSM, COCO, JOJO & DOOG (A36) |
| Dog Harnesses, Leads & Dog Wear | Alpha 360 Fleece Pullover | Woolly Wolf (G31) |
| Small Animal & Bird Products | Osaka Seed Feeder | CJ Wildlife (H87) |
| Pet Care Products | RunFree Grass-Fed Bovine Colostrum Pet Supplement | Bellas Apothecary (B97) |
| Grooming Products | WildWash 5 in 1 Magic Mud for Dogs & Cats | WildWash (J70) |
Aquatics Zone New Product Award winners
The Aquatics Zone New Product Awards were judged by retail experts across three categories — indoor, outdoor and reptile:
| Category | Winning product | Company (stand) |
|---|
| — | — | — |
| Indoor | AxoStart | NT Labs (K20) |
| Outdoor | Orbis Pond | Velda (L18) |
| Reptile | Arcadia Evo Rx | Monkfield Reptile (K30/L29) |
Winning displays on the floor
Several of the award-winning brands’ stands appear in the on-site photograph collection, with their New Product Showcase Winner plaques displayed prominently — the standard way winning exhibitors signal their success to passing buyers.
NT Labs — Indoor aquatics winner (AxoStart)
The NT Labs stand in the Aquatics Zone was a compact, retail-style display built around grey metal shelving and pegboard, packed with the brand’s water treatment and test-kit lines. The plaque, held by a smiling team member for the photograph, read “Aquatics Zone New Product Showcase Winner at PATS 2025.” Around the stand, product ranges visible on the shelves included AxoSafe and AxoStart — the axolotl-specific water conditioner and filter starter that took the Indoor award — alongside Aquarium Lab and Pond Lab multi-test kits, ProCare aquascaping tools, and shelf-edge cards for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH tests. Banners above the display showed fish photography and the brand’s website, anchoring the stand firmly in the aquatics specialist zone.
barkinBISTRO — dog food winner (Pancreatic Support)
The barkinBISTRO display featured the winning product on a dark pedestal table: a 400g box of “Pancreatic Support,” described on pack as a “Specialised Complete Meal for Pancreatic Care,” with an anatomical diagram of a dog’s digestive system on the packaging. Beside it stood the vertical white placard carrying the blue “New Product Showcase Winner, sponsored by PBWnews” seal and the PATS 2025 banner. barkinBISTRO’s brand wall, featuring a dog wearing a chef’s hat, completed the display.
Bellas Apothecary — pet care winner (RunFree)
In a shell-scheme booth, the team behind RunFree displayed two bright green boxes of “RunFree — Organic & grass-fed colostrum,” a 60-capsule pet supplement positioned for joint and gut support, with the “100% ORGANIC COLOSTRUM” message carried on a green banner behind the stand. The representatives wore trade lanyards — one clearly branded for Fold Hill, a UK pet food manufacturer — and the New Product Showcase Winner placard sat between them on the display. The official post-show coverage noted that Bellas Apothecary exhibited in the New Starter Zone, and director Liz Rostand was quoted as saying the win recognised “all our hard work.”
Karnlea — cat food winner (functional toppers)
The Karnlea stand showcased a tiered wooden display of colourful 100g stand-up pouches of liquid toppers for cats — including Hydrate, Beauty, Mobility, Chilled and Appetite variants, each with a cat-head graphic on the pack — with a New Product Showcase Winner plaque mounted in front. The brand’s representative wore a black jacket embroidered with the Karnlea logo, and background banners promoted the wider bone broth range for dogs.
Dog wear — the fleece pullover display
Near the dog apparel area, one display featured a life-size dog mannequin made from layered plywood wearing a rust-orange fleece coat with a high snood-style neck, a teal spine panel and an embroidered brand mark on the hip, standing beside a New Product Showcase Winner placard. The surrounding slatwall carried collars, leashes and harnesses on branded hang-tags, with large yellow lettering on the booth wall behind. The official results credit Woolly Wolf’s Alpha 360 Fleece Pullover with winning the Dog Harnesses, Leads & Dog Wear category; the photographed display is consistent with the award-winning fleece dog wear on show in that part of the hall.
The presence of so many winner plaques across the floor is itself a finding: the New Product Showcase is not a back-office exercise but a visible, commercial marketing asset. Winning brands used the award to draw buyers into the stand, and several of the official post-show quotes from winners (barkinBISTRO, Bellas Apothecary, Woolly Wolf, Monkfield Reptile) describe exactly this dynamic — recognition driving traffic and conversations in the days after the ceremony.
A photographed walkthrough of the show floor
The hall environment
The show floor itself was laid out in the standard NEC configuration: a grid of aisles covered in the show’s blue carpet, with shell-scheme booths (modular white frames) along the aisles and larger space-only stands on corners. Overhead, the hall’s industrial ceiling carried lighting rigs and rigging, and the show’s wayfinding and zone branding directed visitors between the New Product Showcase, the New Starter Zone, the Aquatics Zone and the grooming demonstration area.
One atmospheric image from the collection captures two visitors walking a medium-sized dog down a wide aisle on the blue carpet, a woman in a purple dress holding the lead — a reminder that PATS is a dog-friendly trade event, with well-behaved visitor dogs a familiar sight at UK pet trade shows. A booth sign reading “AQUARISTS” is visible at the side of the aisle, marking the approach to the aquatics section.
Dog food and nutrition
The dog food aisles were among the busiest in the hall, reflecting the category’s dominant share of UK pet retail spend. A range of positioning strategies was visible across the stands photographed.
The provenance play
British and regional provenance was a recurring theme. Eden Holistic Pet Foods, “proudly based in Staffordshire,” used a white subway-tile wall with line-art illustrations of British game and livestock (pheasant, stag, cow, duck), a life-size wolf cut-out and wooden shelving carrying its white-boxed treats and supplements — a strong, instantly readable “British natural” identity. A neighbouring display in the same aisle promoted animal nutrition with “Grain & Gluten Free” and “Slow Cooked” messaging above shelves of food bags.
Raw and high-welfare meat messaging appeared on a light-blue banner in another part of the hall reading “Exceptional raw food: HIGH WELFARE 100% BRITISH MEAT,” where a visitor’s golden retriever — wearing a bright pink harness — was being fed treats from a high-top table, a deliberately hands-on way of demonstrating product appeal. Across the aisle, a dog apparel display (“Coats”) showed a bulldog mannequin in a purple sweater, illustrating how neighbouring categories were merchandised in the same lanes.
Premium dry food stands included a white corner booth carrying two brands — “engage PREMIUM COUNTRY DOG FOOD” and “WINNER PREMIUM DOG FOOD” — with shelving of colour-coded bags and a coffee-table meeting area where a brand team talked through the range with a seated buyer. Elsewhere, the Carnilove corner stand (see the New Starter Zone section below) merchandised large bags of “True Fresh” and “Fresh Carp & Trout” recipes in wooden crates under large wolf and cat murals.
The functional play
Functional and veterinary-adjacent nutrition was strongly represented, led by the barkinBISTRO award display described above and by Johnson’s Veterinary Products, whose sales and marketing manager Matthew Gwynn was quoted in the show’s day-one coverage describing “huge interest in our full range” and the brand’s focus on pet healthcare.
Retail implications of the functional trend
For retailers, the functional food and supplement stands at PATS 2025 carried a practical message that the photographed displays made visually obvious: these products sell on clear, on-pack explanation. The barkinBISTRO box carried an anatomical diagram; Karnlea’s pouches led with the benefit name (Hydrate, Beauty, Mobility); RunFree’s boxes listed benefits in bullets on the side panel. Stands that let buyers read the science at arm’s length were the ones with busy counters — a merchandising lesson worth carrying back to the shop floor, where the same clear-label logic applies.
Treats, supplements and functional pet care
Treats were everywhere — from clear peg-packs of dried treats on the Albion Meat Products / Pure & Natural wall (see below) to premium baked treats from neighbouring stands. The functional supplement segment had an unusually visible presence:
- Karnlea’s cat toppers (award winner, described above), positioned around hydration, skin & coat, mobility, calming and appetite support.
- Bellas Apothecary’s RunFree colostrum supplement (award winner, described above), with joint and gut support claims on pack.
- WildWash’s grooming-focused naturals, whose 5 in 1 Magic Mud took the Grooming New Product Award.
- Pooch & Mutt, whose new Calm & Relaxed Hemp Oil and wider wellbeing range were covered in the trade press around the show (Pet Product Marketing, August–September 2025).
The segment’s presence at PATS matches a wider UK retail trend: supplements and functional toppers have been one of the fastest-growing areas of pet retail, and the show’s buyers were visibly spending time on stands where the science story was told clearly on pack.
Albion Meat Products and the “natural treats” aisle
One of the most visually distinctive stands in the treat aisles belonged to Albion Meat Products, whose high-mounted “ALBION” signage sat above a green “Pure & Natural — All Natural Dog Treats” display decorated with white leaf graphics and silhouettes of farm animals — pig, cow, duck, deer and rabbit. The wall itself was a grid of clear peg-packs of dried dog treats, organised in tidy rows so buyers could compare protein types at a glance. In front of the display, a visitor held an open show guide showing “NEC Birmingham” and the patshow.co.uk website — a small, natural moment that captures how visitors navigated the show.
Alongside it, the Su-Bridge Pet Supplies booth — framed in a house-shaped black wooden structure — and the red-and-white Extra Select branding on a neighbouring partition showed how the natural treat and food aisles mixed well-established wholesaler brands with newer specialist lines.
Cat products and the Rosewood / Tribal stand
The cat aisles mixed food, litter and enrichment. Shelf displays in the cat food area carried brands including Lily’s Kitchen pouches, Ever Clean litter boxes and a “Cat Food & Products” category sign, with a “Product Showcase Sponsored By PBW” roundel on the wall above — the show’s zone branding working as intended.
The Rosewood Pet Products stand was one of the larger space-only presences photographed, and it is worth describing in detail because it shows how a major distributor/own-brand player merchandises multiple brands in one booth. Rosewood team member Sharon Hepworth, wearing a Rosewood-branded puffer vest and an exhibitor badge, was photographed showing a smartphone to a visitor in front of the Tribal brand’s dark shelving, which displayed treat pouches and boxes including a “Trainers” section, with a shelf-edge sign reading “80% FRESH MEAT” and wooden crates of produce-themed treats below. A purple banner on the stand carried the message “Normal is bad news for sensitive dogs,” and a green circular sign in the background promoted Insect Power — Rosewood’s insect-protein line. Around Rosewood, the wider area included the Flamingo cat toy display (see below) and other accessory brands, making this one of the densest corners of the hall.
Cat toys and enrichment. The Flamingo cat toy stand was a burst of colour: dozens of feather teaser wands in neon pink, blue, yellow and guinea-fowl patterns fanned out from white pedestals, with packaged plush toys and feather toys on backer cards hanging from black slatwall behind. A representative demonstrated a teaser wand to a visitor, and the visitor’s branded shopping bag — for Lords & Labradors Pet Care, a premium UK pet brand — showed how visitors were already carrying purchases or samples from other stands. The Flamingo display illustrates a merchandising lesson that was visible across PATS: bright, tactile, high-density displays generated conversation, and products that visitors could touch and wave were the ones they stopped for.
Dog accessories, walkwear and travel
The walkwear and accessories category demonstrated the premium end of the show. The Lords & Labradors booth — a navy-and-light-wood space-only stand with an L-shaped counter, pendant lamps and a 3D silver-lettered sign — displayed rolled pet blankets, white canisters, plush bone toys and a wall of leather collars and matching leashes in tan, chestnut, black and slate with brass hardware. Two representatives talked a customer through the range at the counter, with a laptop open — the classic show-floor order conversation.
A stand away, the TAVO and Company of Animals presence at a white counter with a blue LED-lit base displayed “Safety Leashes,” neon-coloured leashes and collars on a rack, and white tote bags branded WOLF, with a lifestyle backdrop of a couple with two dogs on a park bench. TAVO — a premium pet travel and safety brand — had been shortlisted in the PetQuip Awards in the weeks before the show, per the PATS news feed, and the safety-led messaging on the stand aligned with that positioning.
The award-winning dog-wear display (Figure 10) sat within this part of the floor, reinforcing the strength of British and Nordic design in technical dog clothing — the official results for the category credit Woolly Wolf, which travelled from Finland for the show and, per the day-two coverage, said it would “definitely be booking stand space for next year’s show.”
Small animal, bird and wild bird products
The small animal and bird aisles demonstrated that PATS is genuinely a “all pets” show, not just dogs and cats. The HayDay booth — “Hay for Small Pets” (stand G88) — was one of the most clearly branded small-animal stands photographed, with colourful graphic panels reading “quality British hay,” a Trustpilot badge stating “92% rate EXCELLENT,” and the brand’s characterful tagline “The proof is in the golden poops!” on a pink panel. The counter carried rows of colour-coded tins of small-pet food while shelving behind held bags of hay and dried forage, and a team member was photographed talking a visitor through the range while another staffer stood by.
The Concord Straw Pellets stand (G10) sat among plush toy displays — the photograph shows the booth’s red-packaged goods on peg displays alongside black cabinets stacked with brightly coloured plush animals including pigs and octopus-shaped toys, with a “WIN” competition poster on the counter. The small-pet and bird sections also had strong representation in the show’s product news: the PATS news feed in the weeks before the show carried launches from Harvest (three new wild bird food ranges developed with RSPB and RHS) and CJ Wildlife (the Osaka Seed Feeder, which went on to win the Small Animal & Bird New Product Award). Wild bird food, a major UK garden retail category, had a clear home at this show.
Grooming: live demonstrations and product education
Live grooming demonstrations were one of the show’s headline features, and the photograph collection includes a grooming demo in progress: a professional groomer in a purple smock, wearing a headset microphone, worked with a freshly groomed cream poodle-type dog on a grooming arm while a banner behind the demonstration area advertised For A Dogkind shampoo products, including a “SENSITIVE SHAMPOO” line. The headset is a telling detail — the groomer was narrating technique to an audience, the classic education-led demo format that PATS has built around its Grooming Zone.
For retailers, grooming demos serve a dual purpose: they showcase products in use (shampoos, conditioners, grooming arms, finishing tools) and they model the services that drive footfall and recurring revenue in pet stores. The show’s post-show coverage confirmed grooming demonstrations as one of the event’s headline features, alongside the Aquatics Zone and the New Product Showcase.
The Aquatics Zone
The Aquatics Zone was a defining feature of PATS 2025 — a dedicated area “for aquatics, water gardening and reptile exhibitors,” as the organisers described it, with its own New Product Showcase and awards. Its importance to the show’s identity cannot be overstated: PATS is one of the few UK trade events where the ornamental fish and pond trade has a dedicated national platform, and the zone is where the show’s “Aquatics” half of the name does its work.
Aquadip B.V. — a Dutch supplier of aquarium plants and supplies — ran one of the zone’s most eye-catching stands: a multi-tiered aquarium system densely planted with live aquatic plants (Anubias, ferns, grasses and stem plants), each variety labelled with small identification tags, with orange fish swimming in the lower sections. Two representatives in navy Aquadip-branded shirts stood behind the display, which was lit by pendant lights suspended directly over the water. Brand messaging on the stand included “KEEP HEALTHY AND VIBRANT AQUARIUM PLANTS” and “PROFESSIONAL MARINE CARE PRODUCTS,” with dark blue bottles of treatments and fertilisers on shelves behind.
The NT Labs award-winning stand (Figure 6) anchored the zone’s test-kit and treatment segment, while another photograph shows visitors examining a glass display case of large pieces of natural driftwood and bogwood with barcode tags — the kind of hardscape product that aquascaping retailers stock for both aquarium and terrarium setups. The zone’s own awards — AxoStart (NT Labs, Indoor), Orbis Pond (Velda, Outdoor) and Arcadia Evo Rx (Monkfield Reptile, Reptile) — underline how the area deliberately spanned aquatics, pond and reptile retail in one neighbourhood of the hall, and Monkfield Reptile’s managing director Jo Wise was quoted in the show’s coverage describing the win as “a real team effort.”
The New Starter Zone and emerging brands
The New Starter Zone is PATS’s platform for young companies — businesses three years old or less, or brands new to the show — grouped together with dedicated branding so buyers can find emerging names in one place. For 2025 the zone was a visible presence on the floor, and its position in the show’s hierarchy was confirmed by both the day-one coverage (which noted “many start-up businesses taking advantage of the New Starter Zone”) and the day-two coverage (which reported that Bellas Apothecary, the Pet Care award winner, was exhibiting there).
One of the zone’s most photographed stands was Carnilove, whose corner booth combined dark wood panelling, a wooden floor, large wolf-and-cat murals and a screen playing pet food content. The product merchandising used rustic wooden crates and floor stacks of large bags — including “True Fresh” (Fresh Beef) and “Fresh Carp & Trout” recipes — with a white meeting table and chairs for conversations. The stand sat directly beneath the blue “PATS 2025 New Starter Zone” overhead sign, a useful illustration of how the zone’s branding worked in practice: a visitor passing with a Trixie-branded tote bag from another stand could instantly see which booths were the emerging names worth a closer look.
The zone matters commercially because many of the UK’s fastest-growing pet brands of recent years made their trade debuts at PATS — the show’s own 2026 promotional copy describes the zone as “an ideal place to discover emerging brands and products before they become widely established.” Several 2025 exhibitors followed exactly that trajectory in the trade press around the show: GhostDog Pets used PATS 2025 to launch its Sync range, with founder Glenn Rankin quoted on day one describing the reaction from retailers as “incredible,” and start-up natural pet food brand Waita Pets, which told the show it had secured 100 new stockists in its first year, used PATS to launch its freeze-dried complete food.
Industry networking and the awards culture
A trade show’s value is only partly on the stands; the corridors, lounges and meeting areas do the relational work that the industry runs on. PATS 2025 had this in abundance. The photograph collection includes the PetQuip Awards 2025 backdrop — the awards run by PetQuip, the UK’s pet industry trade association — with “Headline Sponsor LEOPARD8” at the top, a “Thank you to our sponsors” grid including Zoomark, Law, Noble Futures, Pedigree, Copdock Mill, PPM, Petface, Interzoo, Buddy Care, PSC, GBH, J&S and PBW News, and a “Good luck to our finalists” panel listing companies across categories including Supplier of the Year, Product of the Year, Sustainability Award and UK Retailer of the Year. Behind the backdrop, the PetQuip Buyers Centre branding was visible on booth dividers.
The awards ceremony at PATS is a fixture of the UK pet industry calendar, and the show’s news feed confirmed its 2025 footprint: Tavo Pet Safety was shortlisted for its travel range at the PetQuip Awards in the weeks before the show, and the day-one coverage referenced Trusty Pet Supplies having been voted UK Retailer of the Year by PetQuip in 2024. For exhibitors, the awards represent third-party validation they can carry into retail conversations for the rest of the year; for visitors, the finalist lists are a curated shortlist of the brands and retailers doing notable work.
Charity and community presence
The show also had a community-facing dimension. The Blue Cross animal charity ran a booth on the floor with the tagline “Pets change lives. We change theirs.” and the headline “Change pets’ lives today!” above photography of a puppy and a cat. A representative in a Blue Cross-branded t-shirt was photographed talking to visitors while the counter carried plush puppy and kitten toys, a branded reusable water bottle and leaflets. Blue Cross was also named among the show’s 2025 supporting partners, alongside CIPS, Global PETS, PBW News, the Pet Industry Federation (PIF), Pet Product Marketing, PetQuip and ZOOMARK — a partner list that spans trade associations, media and charities, and reflects the ecosystem the show convenes.
Retailer and exhibitor sentiment
The organisers’ own news coverage of the three days provides a documented record of how the show was received, and it is worth summarising because it is publicly verifiable:
- Matthew Gwynn, Johnson’s Veterinary Products (day one): “What a fantastic start to PATS 2025! … There’s a real buzz around the NEC in Birmingham, and we’ve already had huge interest in our full range of products.”
- Glenn Rankin, GhostDog Pets (day one, launching the Sync range): “To have such a positive reaction on the floor today at PATS is incredible.”
- Martin Smedegaard, DOG Copenhagen (day one, exhibiting from Denmark): “On the back of visiting the event last year, I decided to take a stand this year, and I’m glad I did.”
- Sarah Cook, Dearne Valley Pet Centre, Barnsley (day one): “My first impression is how much bigger it is. There’s so much to see that you know as soon as you get through the door that your visit is going to be worthwhile.”
- Hannah Edmondson, Trusty Pet Supplies (day one): “The exhibition is huge this year. There is so much to see and loads of suppliers to meet. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
- Peter Roy, The Nutriment Company (day two): “This exhibition is important for us to talk to key decision makers and lead them through our multiple brands.”
- Andy Poole, Barkin & Meowson (day two, company launch): “PATS has been the perfect place to achieve our goal. We’ve had an amazing response.”
- Joanne Tohill, barkinBISTRO (day two, after its New Product Award win): “It’s the best show we’ve been to, either as an exhibitor or visitor.”
- Lewis Enderby, The Empawrium, Sutton Coldfield (day two): “The show looks bigger and better than ever! … It’s going to be a busy day ahead.”
- Jessy Chaston and Jenny Roe, Doodledales (post-show): “We attended the show for the full three days and we only just got round to seeing everything.”
Read together, the consistent themes are scale (“bigger than ever”), the quality of the buyer conversation (“key decision makers”) and the ease of the new NEC venue. The post-show release also reported that 67% of exhibitors rebooked on the spot — arguably the single strongest signal of commercial satisfaction available.
What PATS 2025 tells us about UK pet retail
Stepping back from the floor, the photographed evidence and the published record together support a handful of observations about the state of UK pet retail in late 2025.
The natural/functional wave is mainstream. From Eden’s British provenance story and Albion’s Pure & Natural treat wall to Karnlea’s functional cat toppers, RunFree’s colostrum supplement and the insect-protein messaging at Rosewood’s Tribal display, the “natural” positioning that was once the preserve of a few premium brands is now visible across every aisle of the show. Retailers who attended PATS 2025 had an unusually large choice of natural, functional and eco-positioned lines to compare side by side — which is precisely the job the show exists to do.
Awards drive floor traffic. The New Product Showcase Winner plaques photographed on the NT Labs, barkinBISTRO, Bellas Apothecary, Karnlea and dog-wear stands were placed at eye level at the front of the displays — deliberately positioned commercial assets. The official quotes from winners confirm the mechanism: winning generates conversations, and conversations generate orders.
The aquatics trade is alive and specialist. The Aquatics Zone’s dedicated awards, the planted displays of Aquadip, the NT Labs test-kit wall and the driftwood hardscape case all point to a specialist segment that values expert-led retailing. For general pet stores, the zone is a reminder that aquatics remains a meaningful, differentiated category — one PATS serves better than any other UK show.
International participation is growing. Fifteen countries exhibited and 317 overseas visitors attended, up 169% — the clearest public evidence that the UK’s trade show, sitting at the NEC with direct rail and air links, is now part of the international sourcing circuit. Danish brand DOG Copenhagen’s decision to graduate from visitor to exhibitor between 2024 and 2025 is a nice micro-example of that pull.
Co-location works. The PATS/BETA International pairing turned one NEC visit into two sourcing opportunities, an arrangement that suits the many combined pet-and-country retailers across Britain. It is reasonable to expect the co-location model to remain a fixture of the event’s value proposition.
Takeaways for retailers and brands attending next year
For anyone planning to attend future editions, the 2025 edition suggests a practical checklist. (PATS 2026 takes place at the NEC on 27–29 September 2026, expanding into Halls 3 and 3a with 14,000 sqm of show floor, an International Pavilion, a PIF Drop-In Clinic, an expanded Grooming Zone and a Hosted Buyer Programme.)
Before the show
- Arrive with a plan but leave room to wander. The consistent visitor feedback — even across three full days — was that there was too much to see. Prioritise must-see stands, but budget time for discovery; the New Starter Zone is where the surprises live.
- Book meetings, but leave gaps. PATS’s quoted value is “face-to-face conversations”; the photographs show meetings happening at desks, counters and coffee tables all over the hall. Mix planned meetings with floor serendipity.
- Consider the co-located show. If your store or brand touches equestrian or country retail, the BETA International hall is on the same badge on the overlapping days.
On the floor
- Spend time at the New Product Showcase. With 450 entries judged by expert retailers, the showcase is the most efficient way to shortlist genuinely new lines before walking the aisles.
- Use the awards as a filter. The winner plaques around the floor — and the official winners list published during the show — are a ready-made shortlist of products that have already passed a retail-expert panel on innovation, design, packaging and value.
- Walk the zones deliberately. The Aquatics Zone, the New Starter Zone and the grooming demonstration area each have their own identity and traffic; the photographed floor showed how zone branding (including the “PATS 2025 New Starter Zone” overhead signage) helped visitors navigate.
After the show
- Act on the shortlist quickly. Rebooking data from the organisers — 67% of exhibitors committed to PATS 2026 by the end of the show — shows how fast the sourcing calendar moves; capture the contacts and offers you collected within days, not weeks.
- Share the learning with your team. The category observations in this report (functional nutrition, British provenance, award-driven traffic) are exactly the signals worth reflecting in next season’s planogram and buying decisions.
First-timer and international checklist
- For first-time brands: apply for the New Starter Zone. The zone’s dedicated branding made young brands instantly identifiable, and at least one 2025 award winner (Bellas Apothecary) exhibited there.
- For international brands: the case for exhibiting is strengthening. With overseas visitors up 169% and the 2026 edition promising an International Pavilion, the UK show’s international pull is now well documented.
Quick-reference: PATS 2026 at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|
| — | — |
| Dates | 27–29 September 2026 |
| Venue | Halls 3 and 3a, NEC Birmingham, B40 1NT |
| Opening times | Sun 09:30–17:00, Mon 09:30–17:00, Tue 09:30–16:00 |
| Entry | Free for qualifying trade visitors (advance registration recommended) |
| New for 2026 | International Pavilion, PIF Drop-In Clinic, expanded Grooming Zone, Hosted Buyer Programme, official show app |
| Co-located | BETA International (equestrian & country trade show) |
Table data: PATS official website and Pet Product Marketing’s “Get PATS ready!” guide (see Sources).
Methodology and photo note
This report combines two evidence streams. First, field photography: every image in this article is a photograph taken on site at PATS 2025 by the author’s team, and observations derived from those images are confined to what is actually visible in them — signage, packaging, stand layout, product categories and visible branding. Where a brand or product is described, it is because that branding is legible in the photograph or is confirmed by a cited public source. Second, documented sources: show statistics, award results, quotes and event details are drawn exclusively from the publicly verifiable sources listed below, primarily the official PATS show newsroom and Pet Product Marketing, the show’s trade media partner.
No commercial claims are made about any brand’s sales, revenue, market share or business results; where the organisers’ own communications reported such figures (for example, rebooking rates), they are attributed to those communications. Readers should treat all photographs as field documentation subject to the usual limitations of on-site photography (lighting, angles, partially obscured signage) and should verify product details with the exhibiting companies directly.
Sources
- PATS — Pet & Aquatics Trade Show, official site: https://www.patshow.co.uk/
- PATS Show News — “Record-breaking PATS 2025 smashes attendance record” (3 October 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/record-breaking-pats-2025-smashes-attendance-record (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260422212600/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/record-breaking-pats-2025-smashes-attendance-record)
- PATS Show News — “PATS 2025 New Product Awards revealed” (28 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/pats-2025-new-product-awards-revealed (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260422204207/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/pats-2025-new-product-awards-revealed)
- PATS Show News — “Aquatics Zone New Product Awards revealed” (28 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/aquatics-zone-new-product-awards-revealed (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260422195818/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/aquatics-zone-new-product-awards-revealed)
- PATS Show News — “Biggest-ever PATS gets off to a flying start” (29 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/biggest-ever-pats-gets-off-to-a-flying-start (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260422203756/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/biggest-ever-pats-gets-off-to-a-flying-start)
- PATS Show News — “The biggest-ever PATS continues to excite” (29 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/the-biggest-ever-pats-continues-to-excite (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20260422135421/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/the-biggest-ever-pats-continues-to-excite)
- PATS Show News — “PATS 2025 and BETA International offer retailers unrivalled sourcing opportunity” (16 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/pats-2025-and-beta-international-offer-retailers-unrivalled-sourcing-opportunity
- PATS Show News — “Zooomy … set to debut at PATS NEC Birmingham 28-30 September” (29 August 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/zooomy-a-ground-breaking-veterinary-developed-new-joint-supplement-for-pets-is-set-to-debut-at-pats-nec-birmingham-28-30-september
- PATS Show News — “Karnlea Launches Groundbreaking Supplement Range for Cats” (11 August 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/karnlea-launches-groundbreaking-supplement-range-for-cats
- PATS Show News — “Tavo Pet Safety Travel Range Shortlisted at PetQuip Awards” (12 September 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/tavo-pet-safety-travel-range-shortlisted-at-petquip-awards
- PATS Show News — “There’s so much to see, do and win at PATS 2025” (30 July 2025): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news-article/theres-so-much-to-see-do-and-win-at-pats-2025
- PATS Show News archive index (45 captures incl. 2025 items): https://www.patshow.co.uk/news (archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20251218074822/https://www.patshow.co.uk/news)
- PATS official homepage snapshot, 18 December 2025 (2025 supporting partners, venue, testimonials): https://web.archive.org/web/20251218074807/https://www.patshow.co.uk/
- Pet Product Marketing — “Get PATS ready!” (PATS 2025 attendance figures, PATS 2026 features): https://www.petproductmarketing.co.uk/news/get-pats-ready/
- Pet Product Marketing — homepage / news (PATS-related coverage): https://www.petproductmarketing.co.uk/
- PetQuip — UK pet industry trade association: https://petquip.com/
All field photographs in this article are from the author’s on-site collection taken at PATS 2025, NEC Birmingham, 28–30 September 2025. The image files reside alongside this report in the project’s fair-source-assets folder. Figure captions note where a co-located event (BETA International) is pictured. Canonical URL is a placeholder pending a live production domain.
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