AutoExCeL 2005, the aftermarket event due to take place at London Docklands next April, has been cancelled.

Richard Abels, the event’s director, said the show had been hit by a series of competing events, which led to confusion in the market.

In a statement he says: “The AutoExCeL Initiative was not launched into a crowded aftermarket event calendar. It was created on a canvas made blank by the demise of flawed and failed exhibitions.

“No sooner was AutoExCeL announced than the event organisers of the past re-emerged, with re-workings - or dilutions - of those old, failed exhibitions. The confusion created by this plethora of exhibitions has served no-one well - certainly not the industry’s suppliers, the companies asked to exhibit at these events. A great many clearly do not know which way to turn.”