The Gro Company and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) – the cot death charity - have won a Business Charity Award in the Affinity Marketing category.

As part of Fisher-Price’s continued marketing initiative connecting mums and babies with the joy of learning, it has announced today the continued sponsorship of The Baby Show, the leading consumer event dedicated to pregnancy, birth and baby with unbeatable shopping and advice. Fisher-Price became the title sponsor of the show in 2010 and has extended its deal into 2012, beginning with the Birmingham NEC event from 18 – 20 May.

Suncrest are delighted to announce that they have acquired FunToSee, the children’s room décor brand.

Sugarjack the luxury changing bag brand are delighted to announce some rather significant business developments! Thanks to some exciting new deals with retailers and wholesalers, Sugarjack are celebrating recent growth both online and on the high street securing their presence across the UK and Ireland.

The team behind the revolutionary item of breastfeeding underwear, breastvest, is delighted to announce a new distribution arrangement which will bring breastvest to new mums in Switzerland.

Baby Brands Direct is delighted to announce yet another exclusive partnership, this time with Rainbow Designs. A spokesperson for the company said “we are committed to increasing our product selection to enable our customers to buy everything they need for their store in one place, quickly and simply, so we are delighted to now offer a wider range of Rainbow toys and gifts on an exclusive wholesale basis to the independent nursery retail sector.”

It’s official! The Editor of Practical Parenting & Pregnancy loves By Carla’s newly designed Raspberry Bloom sleep bag! The editor’s accolade appeared in the June issue of the magazine and highlighted By Carla’s new and exciting collection Raspberry Bloom, a vibrant colour print range with beautiful detailed appliqués and embroidery.

Brother Max’s latest product innovation – the 2-Drinks Cooler Sports Bottle - has already made its TV and radio debut and it only hit the shops last week.

Products from a 3-step dental-care regime for babies and toddlers developed by Brush-Baby Ltd will be rolled across the entire Waitrose store portfolio at the end of May. Having achieved sales success with the award winning Brush-Baby Chewable Toothbrush, the supermarket chain has decided to extend number of lines of Brush-Baby’s unique dental product range in its Baby aisle.

This month sees the launch of Baby&More’s new look website. Since its launch in 2007, Baby&More has grown rapidly and now offers a comprehensive range of mum-inspired baby products. Due to this expansion, the new website has been developed to offer customers a simple, enjoyable online shopping experience.

It has been an exciting time for multi award winning ewan the dream sheep® as he has received not one, but two fabulous celebrity mentions this week! Both Amanda Holden and Una Healey have been singing his praises as ewan has become both their little ones, Holly and Aoife’s, favourite night time companion.

Baby Brands Direct is delighted to announce they are currently the only nursery specific wholesaler for top brands Vicks and Braun, making it easier for independents to buys their safety products.

Baby&More are delighted to announce their newest range of products. Linking up with parenting product experts Coverdry, the retailer will now distribute some of their key lines including the innovative SnuggleBlanki.

Retailers in the Midlands are now working with a fresh face from Rainbow Designs following the appointment of a new Area Sales Manager.

The Potette Plus® has changed the lives of parents worldwide. Distributed in the UK by Bibs + Stuff, we talk to inventor Alan Sandy to find out how a passing comment became a ‘must have’ product....

Evolving from the original and ever popular Potette, the POTETTE PLUS® offers the ideal toilet training solution when on the move.

Liz Pilgrim opened babye in 2004 in Ealing, West London, not far from Ealing Studios, after finding a niche in stylish maternity and baby products. The online shop was launched in August 2006 and is going from strength to strength. Nursery Industry finds out why Liz is leveraging her position as a successful business woman to bring about change in the local community...

Bubble London will be proudly flying the flag high for a summer of great Britishness as Bubble Homegrown launches in celebration of brands designed and manufactured in the UK, at the spring/summer 13 event which takes place from 17‐18 June at the Business Design Centre, Islington.

To commemorate the first anniversary of Prince William and Catherine Middleton this weekend, Barbie Collector has created a gift set representing the couple on their wedding day. The Prince William and Catherine Middleton dolls are dressed in wedding day attire inspired by their original outfits.

The Baby Products Association (BPA), which is the Accredited Trade Organisation (ATO) for the UKTi Trade Access Programme (TAP) advises that the deadline to apply for funding to exhibit at Kind und Jugend this year is fast approaching and the cut off for applications is 25th May 2012.

Kind + Jugend, the world’s largest trade fair for the children’s product industry, will be continuing along its successful course in 2012. With six months still to go until the event, 85 percent of the hall space is already rented. With this result, Kind + Jugend is seamlessly following on from 2011’s outstanding event.

zulily, Inc., a leading daily deals site for mums, babies and kids in the United States have announced the launch of their UK & Irish site, zulily.co.uk. Members can enjoy daily deals of up to 90 percent off well known and boutique brands, with new events debuting every day that typically last for 72 hours. Among the selection of brands launching with the site are Manhattan Toy, Zunblock, Olive and Moss and Snoozeshade.

Silver Cross are celebrating the launch of their new website by giving away a set of Devonshire furniture as well as 10 Nostalgia cot beds.

The Gro Company and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) are proud to announce that their corporate partnership has been shortlisted for a Business Charity Award.

Bibetta is pleased to announce that their multi-award-winning, neoprene Ultrabib™ has been shortlisted as ‘Best Feeding Product’ in the Junior Design Award’s 2012. This news follows the addition of three prominent, new UK stockists - Asda, Boots and Morrisons - adding to Bibetta’s catalogue of well-established, high-street outlets, including retail giants Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Ocado and baby mega-store, Kiddicare.

The 2012 Baby Show For Trade takes place at the National Hall, London, Olympia on 7-9 October and will feature brand new products from a burgeoning list of exhibitors, most notably the first showing of a new launch by Silver Cross.

B Kids UK have successfully built a team of experts to sell the range. The team who will be promoting and establishing the B Kids UK brand as one of the leading Nursery and infant and pre-school toy ranges in the UK come with a wealth of experience and knowledge.

Worcestershire based organic baby specialists The Little Green Sheep were thrilled to have been selected as winners in business mogul Theo Paphitis’s online twitter awards Small Business Sunday !! Each Sunday small businesses are encouraged to tweet Theo, describing their business in less than 140 characters. The Dragon, who has 230,000 followers then retweets his favourite six.

Baby Brands Direct will now exclusively distribute to the independents for one of the biggest and much loved names in the nursery industry, Taggies.

Daniel Terminiello, Managing Director of the Peppermint stores said: "Harrogate is a good opportunity to meet with suppliers, talk about the industry and gain a better understanding of it. I can see all my suppliers in one place rather than having to travel up and down the country to see them individually!

The Practical Parenting & Pregnancy Awards are open for submissions, with 67 hotly contested categories.

With a brand new layout revitalizing an already successful format, Harrogate Nursery Fair 2012 was buzzing with visitors all in the mood for buying. Exhibitors have been contacting Nursery Industry daily to comment on the success of the Show and with so many positive emails flooding in (look out for more in the next issue!) congratulations must go to the HNF team for putting on another fantastic event for the Industry.

Artsana continue to buck the industry trend, by increasing their sales resource with the appointment of Lene Hansen as Customer Development Manager for the Midlands, Wales & South-West. Mitch Levene, Managing Director commented: ‘Lene is the fourth high profile addition to our sales and marketing functions during the past few months and she brings with her an enormous amount of experience and array of skills, including time at Newell Rubbermaid. With the combination of excellent people, product, brand strategy, promotions, added value marketing and merchandising; our customers are well placed to take up the growth opportunity afforded to them via Chicco & Boppy’.

Baby Brands Direct introduced their loyalty scheme 2 years ago, and is delighted to announce that in the last year they awarded over £32,000 back to customers just for shopping on their on-line wholesaler website.

MaByLand are thrilled to announce that their MATchel has won the prestigious BPA Baby and Nursery Trade Award (BANTA) for the Feeding, Cleaning, and Changing category!

Cuddledry, creators of the original baby apron towel, have done it again! Already multi-award winning, the nursery favourite has scooped yet another acolade, this time thanks to the votes of nearly 90,000 parents across the UK.

B Kids had a great reaction to their Newest Arrival at the Harrogate Nursery Fair 2012 and they were delighted to accept the BANTA 2012 Award within the Sleep Accessories Category. The BANTA judges commented “An innovative product and shows a point of difference from others in this category.” Ian MacCrimmon was delighted to be presented the award at the Harrogate Fair commenting “An amazing accolade for our new arrival and confirmation that the new ‘SMART Sensing Technology’ incorporated within the Watch Over Me Dream Station will be an asset to new parents this year.”

There are celebrations all round for the husband and wife team behind the fabulous huggle store as they launch huggle.co.uk. With exclusive brands from across the world, as well as stocking some of the biggest names in the baby market, huggle.co.uk is sure to be a huge hit with parent’s country wide!

The Cot Wrap is now officially a nursery must-have having won the parent voted accolade in the Made by Mum and Dad Bounty award. With almost 90,000 parents casting their votes and with 24 other products to beat winning the Gold award is an absolute honour. The clever invention is perfect for those worried about using a traditional cot bumper for fear of suffocation, but equally frustrated by not having the protection of a pretty bumper around the cot.

The Gro Company is hoping to help parents of young children across the UK switch to BST – no, not British Summer Time but Better Sleep Time!

Eight companies in the nursery industry were joined in celebration at Harrogate Nursery Fair on 26^th March, following the announcement of the BPA Baby and Nursery Trade Awards (BANTA) which were announced at the party and dinner the evening before.

Exhibitors arriving at the Harrogate International Centre are preparing their exhibition stands to ensure an eye-catching display for visitors this coming weekend.

The Market Family has unveiled its first campaign for Ruk-bug following its appointment last month.

bumpPR is rather proud to see three of its clients have been listed in leading lifestyle website MSN’s ‘top UK mumpreneurs’ list. These ingenious mums were featured alongside some of Britain’s most famous Mumpreneurs, including Sarah Beeny, Katie Price and Myleene Klass. This is a fantastic achievement and definitely something to shout about!

Kiddy’s top of the range car seat, the Kiddy Guardianfix Pro (Group 1, 2, 3) has been commended at the Junior Design Awards by being shortlisted in the highly competitive Best Car Seat Design category. The award scheme, now in its second year, is run by Magicalia Ltd which owns Junior and Practical Parenting titles, and has recently bought Prima Baby magazine too.

One very familiar stand you won’t find at Harrogate this year is Haptic and Taggies. Eight years after launching Taggies to the UK and Irish markets exclusive importer and distributor Haptic has dropped the brand.