Feb 2, 2010

A successful start in Frankfurt: more visitors to the four consumer-goods fairs

Around 104,000 trade visitors from 142 countries attended the trade- fair quartet of Paperworld, Christmasworld, Beautyworld and Hair and Beauty from 30 January to 2 February 2010. This means that, despite the unpleasant weather conditions, around 4,000 more buyers made their way to the Frankfurt am Main than the year before. Every second visitor came from outside Germany. The top five visitor nations after Germany were Italy, France, The Netherlands, Great Britain and Switzerland. Representing the paper, office supplies and stationery, festive decorations, beauty and cosmetics and the hair- cosmetic industry, a total of 3,438 exhibitors from 67 countries made presentations at the four events.

“We are delighted that the four consumer-goods fairs have once again been able to provide an optimistic start to the business year for the sectors taking part. The economic crisis was much less present. The trade and industry are becoming more sanguine and their ideas are more and more creative. And this was to be seen clearly at all four events: on the exhibitor side with lots of innovative and new products; on the visitor side through the numbers taking part and a healthy curiosity about everything that could increase the upwards trend”, says Dr. Michael Peters, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt GmbH, sketching the course of business at the four consumer-goods fairs.

“Reinventing yourself daily” is how Reinhard D. Wolf, President of the German Perfumery Association (Bundesverband Parfümerien e.V.) describes the trend against the background of unceasingly hard competition. “Potential solutions to the problem include greater in- dividuality, innovativeness in the trade and greater sustainability for products.”

In the case of hairdressers, innovativeness is part of their business as is, therefore, continuously trying out new products: “In view of the current weather, the number of visitors to Hair and Beauty is amazing. However, it is also an indication of the enormous demand for further training and confirms the need for the fair”, says Rainer Röhr, General Manager of the Central Association of the German Hairdressing Trade (Zentralverband des Deutschen Friseurhand- werks), partner and notional sponsor of Hair and Beauty. The hair- cosmetic industry also sees developments in a positive light: “Our first reaction is that we are very pleased with Hair and Beauty. We were easily able to achieve our primary goal of making contact to hair- dressers and have had a significant impact”, says Dr. Rüdiger Gottschalk, General Manager, Salon Professional / Wella.

“The demand from dealers for new products” was also noticed by Nic Duysens, General Manager of the home accessories and lifestyle supplier of the same name, a long-standing Christmasworld exhibitor. “The audience is very international and the visitors are experts in their field. We have taken lots of good orders and are correspondingly pleased with the fair.” Christmasworld also represented a good start to the year for ethnic art from the Ore Mountains. “We are looking forward to a significant improvement in our exports over the coming year”, says Dieter Uhlmann, General Manager of the Association of Ore Mountains Craftsmen and Toy Makers (Verband Erzgebirgischer Kunsthandwerker und Spielzeugwarenhersteller e.V.).

“All important customers are here” and “The crisis is no longer a topic of discussion” were typical of the remarks to be held in the Paperworld exhibition halls. “People are more optimistic again. Exhibitors have the courage to present new products. This year’s Paperworld has proved to be a positive event for the writing-utensil industry”, explains Manfred Meller, General Manager of the Industrial Association for Writing, Drawing and Creative Hobbies (Industrie- verband Schreiben, Zeichnen, Kreatives Gestalten e.V. – ISZ).

Following a slight increase in sales in 2009 and stable business at Christmas, the greetings-card segment also made a good start to the year at Paperworld. “Generally speaking, I have only heard positive remarks from our members at the fair. Greetings cards in the higher price categories are in particular demand”, says Günter Garbrecht, Deputy Chairman of the German Association of Greetings Cards Manufacturers and Publishers (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hersteller und Verleger von Glückwunschkarten – A.V.G.).

Summarising on behalf of the retail trade, Thomas Grothkopp, General Manager of the German Office Supplies Association (Bundesverband Bürowirtschaft – BBW) in the German Home and Office Association (Bundesverband Wohnen und Büro e.V. – BWB) said, “Paperworld held its own despite the difficult economic climate. The number of visitors was good on all days. On the weekend, they came from owner-run shops, at the beginning of the week from drop shippers and the purchasing management of chain stores.

Christmasworld offered a supplementary benefit for many users. The bad weather undoubtedly stopped some trade visitors from making the journey to Frankfurt. However, the ambitious ‘Paperworld Insider’ programme found favour among specialist retailers, aroused their interest in the fair and gave committed exhibitors a boost.” Altogether, over 4,500 specialist retailers registered for the Paperworld Insider programme.

The première of Remax as part of Paperworld was also a complete success: “We are very satisfied with the new synergetic effects made possible by the combination of Paperworld Imaging and Remax here in Frankfurt. Therefore, we are also pleased to have brought Remax to Frankfurt”, said David Connet, publisher of Recycler trade magazine and Joint Venture Partner of the European trade fair for recycling printer accessories.

As last year, three quarters of all exhibitors said they were satisfied with the course of business at the four consumer-goods fairs. On the visitor side, this value was once again much higher. Both exhibitors and visitors take an optimistic view of the economic outlook that, overall, is being seen in a more positive light this year.

Trends

Small luxuries are en vogue and this trend runs through all sectors. Environmental consciousness, exquisite design and high-grade furnishings are ‘in’. Recycling paper is no longer brown. Now, it is more like hand-made paper with a brilliant white and first-class appearance. Design, functionality and high-grade materials are key factors for purchasing stationery, paper and accessories. In home offices, these criteria are coupled with the trend colour white and subdued shades.

The trend in the decoration segment is similar to that in the paper, office supplies and stationery sector whereby the focus is on modern interpretations of traditional products and high quality. For Christmas 2010, manufacturers are banking on voluminous baubles and imaginatively designed animals, angels and fairy-tale figures. Lilac remains the trend colour for Christmas trees although blue and brown are gaining ground again. Easter is no less glamorous with hand- blown glass rabbits, chicks and Easter eggs in lemon yellow, light green and brown decorating the Easter posy.

When it comes to beauty, much revolves around the Botox effect from the cream jar. Likely to be particularly popular are, for example, ‘Doctor’ brands, wrinkle fillers, medical peelings and deep-penetrating masks. Soap made of sheep’s milk, anti-aging based on apple stem cells, crèmes made of goat’s milk, potatoes and garden flowers of all kinds reflect the search for an ideal, unpolluted world. Ecology and sustainability are playing every greater roles. In the Wellness & Spa segment, the trend is towards the Orient and all its aromas, spices and applications.

Easy-care haircuts, which fall into place when you shake your head, are popular. In 2010, the bob, which is still on-trend, tends to be curly, heavily layered and worn asymmetrically, together with stubbornly long, oversized ponytails. Blond, mainly white and platinum blond but also iridescent in cool metallic and silver, are popular with stylists. A blond shock of hair can happily play around in pale pink. Blue-black with a pale complexion is also on the way in. Hair extensions, if used at all, are in every colour of the rainbow. And clip-on plaits, hair pieces and volumiser help those with insufficient volume of their own.

Background information on Messe Frankfurt
With annual revenues of € 424 million* and over 1,500 employees around the world, Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s biggest fair and exhibition company. The corporate group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices and 52 international sales partners, which represent Messe Frankfurt in over 150 countries of the world. Events ‘made by Messe Frankfurt’ are held at over 30 venues worldwide. In 2009*, the Messe Frankfurt group organised over 90 fairs, more than half of them outside Germany. At present, the Exhibition Centre can boast 578,000 square metres of ground space with ten exhibition halls and a congress centre. The company is publicly owned with 60 percent being held by the City of Frankfurt and 40 by the State of Hesse.

Further information: www.messefrankfurt.com
*Provisional figures for the 2009 business year.