Outdoor living

Spoga – the International Trade Fair for Sport, Camping and Garden Lifestyle – will be open for business between 4 and 6 September 2005. Altogether the organisers are expecting 1 400 exhibitors, three-quarters of them from abroad (50 countries). The number of classic Spoga exhibitors should remain stable at around 1 200. The largest foreign contingent will be from China with approximately 228 suppliers, followed by Italy (132), India (93), Britain (81) and the Netherlands (75).
Broad range of products
The traditional Spoga product categories – furniture & home, barbecues, camping & leisure, sports & games, plus equestrian sport – will be supplemented by product groupings that are usually represented at Gafa, which is held every two years now. The new lines cover floristry supplies and decoration, plants and plant care, water and outdoor lighting, garden equipment and structures, garden design and maintenance. They are all part of the "Garden Lifestyle" segment, along with furniture and barbecuing. About 200 companies among the Gafa exhibitors will not be following the new two-yearly fair cycle, but prefer to have a presence in Cologne every year instead.
This year garden and summer furniture will again form the strongest product segment at Spoga, with more than 600 companies occupying a gross exhibition space of 81 000 m². The presentations will display furniture for the garden, patio or balcony, and include an increasing number of collections that are suitable for furnishing interiors as well. A focal point of interest will for the third time be provided by the “Garden Furniture Center of Excellence”. Approximately 40 firms from 13 countries represented there in Halls 6 and 8.1 will show outdoor furnishings which are characterised by their upmarket design, innovative ideas, exclusive materials and quality.
There will be 1 400 suppliers at this year's Spoga, 200 of them in categories relevant to Gafa.
Camping products are being shown by around 180 firms. This category will be expanded by an assortment of products for water sports and diving, sport and leisure, to be found on around 100 stands.
Versatile support programme
Spoga's support programme will once again offer a specialist store tour, which is scheduled for 6 September and organised by Koelnmesse and the publishing house of Dähne with its trade journal DIY in Europe. It is proposed to visit three stores specialising in garden products, outdoor furniture and barbecues in the area around…