Trade Fair - 25 years ago

Janet Dixon and her company Kwickill had a 1988 Rochdale Trade Fair

In 1988 Rochdale Town Hall held a trade fair for local businesses to promote themselves and other local companies.

At the time, Janet Dixon and her company Kwickill had a stall at the fair. Janet who is now the longest serving female pest controller said: “It was my dad’s idea to go to the fair because he heard about it from Valley Shop Fittings.”

Kwickill used the trade fair to promote the use of local businesses. Janet, who now runs the company added: “The town hall was full. It was really busy with a lot of people. I was quite nervous at the time because my dad just threw me in at the deep in. He was pushing for me to promote the business.”

Janet says the key to the success of the trade fair was advertising. She said: “There was a lot of advertising around. I can mainly remember a lot of insurance and printing companies being there.”

After the success of the Rochdale trade fair, a similar fair was then held in Leeds. “I’m not too sure why Leeds but I think they wanted to infiltrate Yorkshire because we do work in Yorkshire” added Janet.

Kwickill, which started in 1985, is a pest control business that covers a large section of the North West of England. Janet is keen to promote the idea of local businesses and local companies and believes things like the trade fair from 25 years ago need to happen more.

She said: “More need to happen because we need to promote the idea of local businesses. More people are turning to local businesses rather than the bigger companies because they get a better service. We offer a one on one quality service which people like.”

The company which is a family run company is also in the middle of creating a BBC documentary based around the business of pest control. “Keo Films (who recently produced Channel 4’s ‘Skint’) have been with us and a done a brief shoot but now the BBC wants more of a taster. They may do something like ‘life of grime’ but nothing is set in stone,” said Janet.

Janet who attended this year’s trade fair in the same place as 25 years ago said: “The one 25 years ago was just like this one just gone but a lot busier. I actually didn’t realise how long ago it really was.”