Planned · security
IFSEC International merch for exhibitors — ExCeL London
For security installers, CCTV vendors, access-control brands, perimeter-security manufacturers and integrated-systems integrators who need branded apparel, trade giveaways, integrator kits and procurement-friendly VIP packs — sourced, packed and delivered to ExCeL on time. Independent external supplier; no partnership or sponsor claims.
UK security sector context
IFSEC International is the UK's flagship security trade event, drawing installers, system integrators, end-user procurement teams, CCTV and access-control vendors, perimeter-security manufacturers and consultants to ExCeL London every June. The audience is largely UK and European, with a sizeable contingent from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. UK VAT at 20% applies to merchandise. Buyers in this sector expect CE / UKCA-marked products on any regulated category (PPE, electronic equipment) and a clear supply-chain trail.
The security-sector audience values substance over flash: branded workwear, hard-hat accessories, hi-vis gear (where relevant), and practical giveaways (torches, multi-tools, tape measures) read better than cheap plastics. Briefs should arrive with vector artwork and Pantone references; physical proofs are recommended for any decoration over 2 colours or any garment decoration.
Pricing and framework
Security-sector merch programmes typically fall into the following bands, exclusive of VAT. Branded apparel (polo, T-shirt, softshell, hi-vis vest) £22–£62 per piece at MOQ 50–150 units. Branded workwear (EN ISO 20471 hi-vis, EN 343 weatherproof) £32–£95 per piece at MOQ 50 units. Tote bags and drawstring bags £6–£18 per piece at MOQ 100 units. Insulated stainless bottles (500 ml) £14–£32 per piece at MOQ 50 units. Practical giveaways (torches, multi-tools, tape measures, branded USB drives) £6–£42 per piece at MOQ 100 units. Integrator kits assembled from multiple items £65–£220 per pack. Coordination fees £350–£1,400 per programme.
Settlement is in GBP; 50% deposit on order, 50% balance before despatch. Invoices carry 20% VAT unless the printed-matter zero-rating applies. For programmes that include items sourced from EU or US suppliers post-Brexit, customs handling and VAT recovery are part of the brief.
Lead time
Standard production lead time is 4–6 weeks from approved brief and artwork for custom decorated product. Ready-stock items with single-colour print or basic embroidery turn around in 1–2 weeks. Branded workwear with EN ISO 20471 certification and EN 343 weatherproof ratings requires documented supply-chain evidence and runs a 5–7 week production window. Recommended schedule for IFSEC: brief submitted 8 weeks before, sample approved 6 weeks before, final order 4 weeks before, delivery landed 1 week before the venue hand-over.
The UK spring weather rarely disrupts June freight, but the late-May and spring bank holidays can compress working weeks; we plan around the published dates. Royal Mail and Parcelforce see occasional industrial action — we plan around published strike calendars.
Seasonal planning and stock
June sits in the late-spring window before the autumn trade-show season. UK decoration capacity is generally comfortable. Embroidery workshops in the Midlands, Manchester and Leicester treat IFSEC as a flagship June order; capacity books up once the exhibitor manual publishes. We hold preliminary capacity reservations for recurring IFSEC clients from early April.
The UK summer holiday window (late July through August) does not directly affect a June show but compresses the post-show reconciliation and follow-up. For programmes that include items sourced from EU suppliers, post-Brexit customs handling is part of the brief and recorded in writing.
Delivery and hand-over
UK delivery runs on DHL UK, DPD UK, Evri, Parcelforce, FedEx UK and UPS, with Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 for smaller parcels. Mainland UK next-day services for time-sensitive parcels; 2–3 day economy services for larger dispatches. For IFSEC we typically despatch to ExCeL on the official build-up day, with a named receiver and a tracking reference shared before despatch. ExCeL requires pre-registered courier slots, vehicle details and a named consignee; the show's exhibitor manual sets the build-up and breakdown windows.
We arrange a backup delivery to a Canary Wharf or City hotel for teams that prefer not to freight directly to ExCeL, or to a local depot for handover the morning of the show. London Congestion Charge and ULEZ apply for central London deliveries; vehicles are routed to comply.
What a typical IFSEC brief contains
An IFSEC merch brief typically specifies audience tiers (booth staff 6–20, general giveaways 500–2,500, integrator kits 100–500, end-user procurement VIP packs 20–80), per-tier budget in GBP, the venue hand-over window, the named receiver on site, the backup receiver, the courier route, and any sector-specific compliance requirements (CE / UKCA marking, EN ISO 20471, EN 343). The brief is the working document; the proof approval, the despatch note and the receipt are the four written records we maintain.
The strongest briefs state explicitly: the audience size per tier, the per-tier budget ceiling, the on-site receiver's name and mobile, the courier route, the named receiver at the backup location, and the deadline for physical proof approval. With these in writing the production runs without friction; without them the brief gets clarified during the production window, which costs time.
When an IFSEC merch programme is ideal
The programme works when the exhibiting team has a fixed audience definition per tier, a fixed per-tier budget, and a hand-over plan that survives a courier disruption or a venue slot change. The integrator-buyer audience expects documented supply chain and EN / UKCA certificates on regulated items; an undocumented brief is more difficult to convert into a follow-up contract. It is less suited to last-minute spec changes within 14 days of the show, or to programmes where the audience size is genuinely unknown.
The strongest programmes we deliver follow a fixed pattern: 50–500 attendees per tier, named courier slots, BACS settlement in GBP, a 5–7 week production window (including workwear certification), a physical proof approved in writing, and a hand-over plan that names the on-site receiver and the backup. When those four items are in place, the merch becomes a low-friction part of the show rather than a live problem to solve.
Specifications and certifications
Decoration is selected per material. Cotton and cotton-rich apparel supports screen printing (1–6 colours), embroidery (up to 12 thread colours per design), DTG (full photo), DTF (full photo with sharp detail), and heat-transfer vinyl. Polyester and performance fabric supports sublimation, DTF and embroidery. Workwear supports embroidery and reflective heat-transfer application. Drinkware (ceramic, glass, stainless) supports screen printing, pad printing, laser engraving, UV printing and sublimation on coated blanks. Vector artwork (EPS, AI, SVG) is required for production.
Certifications relevant to UK security buyers: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for textiles, GOTS for organic cotton, GRS for recycled material, FSC for paper and board, EN ISO 20471 for hi-vis garments, EN 343 for weatherproof garments, UKCA marking for relevant product categories placed on the GB market, Modern Slavery Act 2015 Section 54 statement on request, UK GDPR for any personalisation. The buyer's data controller responsibilities remain with the buyer.
Common mistakes
The recurring failures on IFSEC programmes fall into a small set of patterns. No named courier slot booked at ExCeL: the parcel arrives during the show's open hours and is refused at the loading bay. No physical proof signed off: the colour drifts 2–3 shades from the Pantone reference and the on-site stand doesn't match the brand book. Artwork supplied as a raster JPG from a slide deck: the print comes out pixelated at 200mm wide. Pantone codes omitted: the decoration house matches to the closest stock colour and the brand drifts. Below MOQ ordered at full decoration cost: the per-piece unit cost balloons.
Other regular pitfalls: omitting EN ISO 20471 or EN 343 certificates that the buyer's compliance team will ask for; ordering hi-vis garments without verifying the certification class (Class 2 vs Class 3); placing the order on a UK bank holiday Monday and losing working days from the production window; paying by personal card instead of BACS and triggering the receiving team's expense-policy query. Each is avoidable with a written brief, a named receiver and a 24-hour confirmation cycle.
Production and delivery process
The standard process for an IFSEC programme: (1) brief submitted with audience tiers, budget per tier, dates, venue and any sector-specific compliance requirements; (2) product matrix and decoration methods proposed within two working days; (3) artwork supplied in EPS/AI/SVG with Pantone references, and a physical proof requested where colour fidelity matters; (4) proof approved in writing; (5) setup and series production with a sample run at the start of the run; (6) quality control on the full batch including certification verification on regulated categories; (7) packing by tier with named labels; (8) despatch via named courier to the venue, hotel or office with the tracking shared the day of despatch; (9) on-site or hotel hand-over confirmed against the booking; (10) post-event reconciliation and feedback captured for the next programme.
Payment terms: 50% deposit on order confirmation, 50% balance before despatch; GBP invoices; BACS, Faster Payments, CHAPS, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, Apple Pay and Google Pay accepted. The brief, the proof approval, the despatch note and the receipt are the four written records we maintain for every programme.
Case study
A UK CCTV manufacturer exhibiting at IFSEC with a 60-square-metre stand: 36 staff polos (embroidered, three positions, with reflective tape), 1,500 drawstring bags (1-colour print), 800 branded tape measures (pad-printed), 300 stainless torches (laser engraved), 120 lead-capture power banks (10,000 mAh, UKCA-marked), 40 integrator VIP kits (premium notebook, pen, multi-tool, branded USB drive) — 6-week production window including workwear certification verification, despatch to ExCeL on the official build-up day. The buyer placed a follow-up order for the October security-event roadshow and the November National Security Conference at the QEII Centre.
An access-control start-up exhibiting for the first time at IFSEC with a 20-square-metre stand: 12 staff T-shirts (organic cotton, 2-colour screen print), 400 organic cotton tote bags, 200 stainless bottles (laser engraved), 80 lead-capture gifts (power banks, 5,000 mAh), 30 integrator kits (USB drive with technical documentation, branded notebook, pen) — 4-week production window, despatch to a City hotel the night before the build-up day. The start-up secured 6 enterprise integrator contracts within eight weeks of the show.
Compliance and certifications
UK B2B merch sits under several overlapping regulatory frameworks. UK GDPR applies to any personalisation — named engraving, individual recipient labels, attendee data on packing lists. The ICO is the regulator. UKCA marking is the post-Brexit product-marking regime for relevant product categories placed on the GB market; CE marking remains accepted for some categories during transition windows. PPE sold to UK buyers must carry UKCA marking and the relevant EN standard; security-industry buyers typically request EN ISO 20471 for hi-vis and EN 343 for weatherproof.
For VAT, HMRC is the relevant authority. Standard VAT is 20%; printed matter (books, leaflets, brochures, programmes, certain catalogues) is zero-rated when meeting HMRC criteria. For sustainability claims, OEKO-TEX Standard 100, GOTS, GRS and FSC are the certifications buyers most often request. For food-contact drinkware, EU 10/2011 and LFGB remain the standard food-safety documents even after Brexit.
Comparison with alternatives
Compared with printed brochures and email follow-ups, event merch carries higher per-piece cost but produces a longer-lived brand impression and a physical artefact the integrator keeps in the field. For security-sector buyers, a documented supply chain and named certificates often decide whether the brand makes the shortlist for the next tender. Compared with bespoke gifts ordered direct from a single supplier, a structured programme (brief → matrix → proof → production → delivery → hand-over) reduces the operational risk of running out of stock on day two.
The main alternative is to commission the merchandise in-house and absorb the operational risk. For teams that exhibit at IFSEC and other security-sector shows year-on-year, an in-house programme with retained supplier relationships is more cost-effective per piece. For first-time exhibitors, an external programme with a written brief is typically lower-risk than rebuilding the supplier network from scratch.
Programme lifecycle
The lifecycle for an IFSEC programme: brief (1 week) → artwork (1–2 weeks) → proof (3–5 working days) → setup (1 week) → production (2–3 weeks) → QC including certification verification (2–3 days) → packing (2–3 days) → delivery (1–2 working days) → on-site or hotel hand-over → post-event reconciliation. Annual cycle: Q1 (brief drafting for June IFSEC and supplier reservations), Q2 (delivery of IFSEC and spring programmes), Q3 (summer roadshow), Q4 (autumn security events and year-end gifting).
For multi-show programmes (a team exhibiting at IFSEC and several autumn shows), we recommend a brief template that captures the brand matrix once and reuses it across shows with venue-specific adjustments. For repeat clients the lifecycle compresses as artwork, suppliers and freight slots are pre-agreed.
Common questions
When should we place the order?
An eight-week window gives the safest range of product and decoration options, including workwear certification. Shorter timelines are only viable when stock, branding methods and venue access are all confirmed in writing.
Can the order ship directly to ExCeL London?
Only after the organiser confirms the build-up window, the courier route and the named receiver. Many teams still prefer a hotel or local office delivery to avoid customs handling and the last-mile risk on a congested show floor.
Can the order be split by audience tier?
Yes. Booth-staff apparel, general giveaways, qualified lead gifts and integrator kits can be packed and labelled separately, with different delivery addresses when the team needs to split between the venue, a London hotel and a UK office.
Is Corp-Merch a partner or official supplier of IFSEC International?
No. Corp-Merch is an independent external supplier that helps participating companies prepare their own merchandise. We do not organise, sponsor or represent the event, the venue or any sponsor.
What payment methods do you accept?
BACS, Faster Payments, CHAPS, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, Apple Pay and Google Pay, all settled in GBP. Invoices carry 20% standard VAT unless the item qualifies for zero-rating under HMRC rules.
Independent supplier. Corp-Merch.uk is an independent external supplier for participating companies. This page supports the teams' own merch preparation for IFSEC International; it does not represent the organiser, the venue or any sponsor. The dates, organiser and venue information are based on the public event listing available at the time of writing and must be re-confirmed against the current exhibitor manual before production is finalised.