A relative increase

The Spoga+Gafa fair came to an end on 6 September with an increase in visitors. Some 36 300 trade visitors from 106 countries travelled to Cologne for the garden trade fair. Koelnmesse compares the event with the staging of Spoga two years ago (25 350 visitors), which reveals an increase of 43 per cent. The number of exhibitors rose by 28 per cent to 1 174, while the gross exhibition space was up by more than 50 per cent. International participation on the visitor side amounted to 59 per cent, and to 81 per cent on the exhibitor side. The fair organisers displayed great satisfaction with the figures in “year one after the strategic decision to bring Spoga+Gafa back into the annual cycle”, as formulated by Koelnmesse divisional director Metin Ergül. They also point to the fact that prominent exhibitors, including Neudorff, Freund Victoria, Heissner, Keter, Scheurich, Lechuza and Weber-Stephen, have already announced their intention to participate at next year’s fair. The exhibitors, too, made a positive, though not euphoric, assessment of the way the event went. However, no euphoria was expected: it was clear to everyone that the self-confidence of the fair organisers, which led them to go ahead and return Gafa to the annual staging cycle, would not be sufficient to get back into the exhibition halls the garden market’s core ranges – such as the bio-chemical product groups and the manufacturers of motorised tools in particular– to such an extent that use of the expression “market overview” could be justified. All in all, however, the industry associations expressed a positive assessment of the fair in Cologne. “The public was very international, the customer traffic added up”, in the summing-up of Johannes Welsch, general secretary of the IVG, or German Garden Industry Association. The BHB, or German DIY Retailers’ Association, also stressed the internationality of the fair. And, finally, came confirmation from EDRA’s general secretary John Herbert that large-volume buyers had attended the event from all over the world. He quoted the general assessment of the members of the European DIY Retailers’ Association that “The buyers were impressed by the quality of the products shown at the fair and, without exception, their comments were extremely positive.” Download: