Retailers and pet product buyers have given PATS Sandown’s new Sunday-Monday slot in February a massive thumbs up by visiting in their droves.

This year’s show attracted 1,993 visitors, which is a record in the show’s 11-year history. This compares with last year’s visitor numbers for the March date of 1,801 and represents an 11% increase year-on-year.

Organisers said that exhibitors welcomed a great degree of confidence being shown despite economic uncertainty caused by Brexit.

Grooming demonstrations and workshops returned to the Sandown exhibition after a two-year absence and were a hive of activity throughout the show. The series of seminars also proved very popular with visitors.

Organiser Gordon Thomas said: “We’re so pleased the move of dates to a Sunday and Monday in February has been a huge success. We love running this exhibition and it’s great to hear that exhibitors and visitors have experienced a brilliant show, demonstrating that PATS is the show for serious buyers of pet products.”