In brief

The two specialist trade fairs Asia-Pacific Sourcing and IAW (International special offers and import) will be staged parallel to each other in the spring from 3 to 5 March 2015 in Cologne. "We are delighted that a cooperation with IAW has been agreed", Katharina C. Hamma, director of the Koeln-messe, explained. "The IAW and Asia-Pacific Sourcing attract visitor target groups that are important for both parties. We therefore anticipate a considerable increase in the number of visitors".
The portfolio, which has included a range of products from tools, locks and fittings, DIY, sports and leisure to gardening tools and equipment in the past few years, will be supplemented by household goods, gifts and home accessories, as well as large and small domestic appliances in the spring of 2015.
The IAW is regarded as the leading trade fair for promotional and trend-led products as well as volume business in Europe. The spring event in 2014 attracted 8 900 trade visitors from Germany and abroad. The last Asia-Pacific Sourcing fair in March 2013 recorded 5 000 visitors.

At the trade congress for DIY, Household & Garden Centres Retail 2014 held in Moscow, 650 participants from 13 countries discussed how one could be successful in a market where growth is relatively weak. Indeed 2013 was the year where the weakest growth rates were recorded in the Russian DIY sector since 2005. Only Leroy Merlin Russia was able to manage a 30 per cent increase. The managing director, Vincent Gentil presented his company's successful concept in depth. This included, amongst other things, the stable relationship to Russian suppliers, whose delivery volumes had to keep pace with a yearly 30 to 40 percent growth level. Approximately 25 per cent of the product range was renewed on an annual basis. By the end of this year, Leroy Merlin's own brands will make up twelve per cent of the Russian turnover, Gentil announced.
At the summit meeting, Obi's boss in Russia Ian Strickland, went into great detail about the success factors - staff and company culture in his presentation. Obi Russia attaches great importance to teamwork, intangible motivation, trust, communication, training and development, he said. The company profits annually from the employee integration with high growth rates. Obviously the efforts of the DIY store operator are similarly assessed in the trade: Obi was honoured with the DIY…