About us

The Value for Money Company Limited has been organising shows for the past 34 years.

We now run 5 shows a year: two boutique fashion events in spring and autumn at Ascot Racecourse and three Christmas Fairs in Cheltenham, Ascot and Harrogate. Before lockdown, we also ran two homes and gardens shows at Ripley Castle and Sudeley Castle and an early autumn fashion and gift fair in Harrogate.

Founded in 1992 by four directors – two of whom retired in 1999 – the other two, David Heslam and Noelle Walsh, are still an integral part of the company. Meanwhile, the baton is being passed onto the next generation as their daughter, Ciara, works with them with a view to running the company in the future. So our very small team of three co-ordinate all the different functions of an exhibition business from selling stands to marketing.

Noelle was Editor of Good Housekeeping in the late Eighties and early Nineties, having worked at Cosmopolitan magazine earlier in her career…

Our shows fit into the marketplace at about the middle of the scale in terms of size and the top end in terms of customer profile. Smaller than the agricultural shows and big consumer events held at venues such as the NEC and Olympia, the numbers of exhibitors at each event ranges from 130 to 180. Our customers are primarily AB, high-spending women aged 42-72.

Ciara worked in social media and digital marketing for the past 13 years, initially for brands such as Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Vivienne Westwood…

Of the two founding partners, Noelle was Editor of Good Housekeeping in the late Eighties and early Nineties, having worked at Cosmopolitan magazine earlier in her career and, later, at The Daily Telegraph, before founding the Value for Money Co Ltd. David worked as a senior commission editor in publishing for the Hamlyn Group. Noelle also wrote the best-selling book, The Good Deal Directory and bought and furnished The Good Deal House with factory shop purchases, saving £17,000 on furnishing a 3-bedroom house. She has written and edited numerous books, written regularly for magazines and newspapers and appeared on TV and radio.

Ciara worked in social media and digital marketing for the past 13 years, initially for brands such as Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Vivienne Westwood before moving to Dubai to work in top brand name retail there and then coming back to work with large well-known agencies and specialising in influencer marketing.