The Game Fair has bought the World Gunmakers’ Evening from its founder, ITAP Group, which runs GunsOnPegs.com.
The Game Fair paid an undisclosed sum for the event, which attracts low hundreds of high net worth attendees to a tabletop event at a London hotel each year, where they can look at the latest guns from makers including Browning, AYA and Purdey. The next World Gunmakers’; Evening will take place under the new owners in November. Date and location to be confirmed.
“We’ve got some big plans to roll that [event] out and geo-clone that in other territories,” says Game Fair chief executive James Gower.
Gower has an international outlook for his company this year. The World Gunmakers’ Evening deal follows the 2020 refinancing of his company. In August 2020, Dubai-based World Media Group Ltd acquired a stake in the Game Fair.
WMG chairman Richard Hease now chairs the Game Fair, working with co-owner Gower. Future Publishing, which also owns a share in the business, put Jonny Sullens as its new director on the board.
WMG has a track record investing in consumer events. It invested in River Street Media, previous owners of the Good Food Shows and Gardeners World until its sale to Immediate Media.
In the Middle East through its Turret Media investment, it operated consumer events like the Taste of Dubai and Taste of Abu Dhabi for which it held a licence in the Middle East. Turret Media was acquired two years ago by its management team.
The Game Fair takes place on 23-25 July 2021 at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire
