Increased exhibitor and visitor numbers confirm the leading international position of Ambiente

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The most successful Ambiente for more than a decade closed its doors in Frankfurt am Main with a 3.5 percent increase in the number of visitors. Altogether, 144,000 buyers from 161 countries attended the world's leading trade fair for the consumer-goods sector (2013: 139,367 from 143 countries). Ambiente was also in top form on the exhibitor side: for five days, 4,724 exhibitors from 89 countries (2013: 4,714 exhibitors from 81 countries) presented trends and innovations for the coming business season and, with 329,300 square metres of exhibition space (gross), occupied the same area as last year. "Ambiente has never been so international and important for the sector as today. This confirms our positioning of the Ambiente brand as the world's leading trade fair for the consumer-goods market. The positive economic climate in Germany and the upturn in the world economy have given the fair a substantial boost", says Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt GmbH.

More than half of the trade visitors at Ambiente 2014 came from outside Germany. The top 10 visitor nations after Germany are Italy, France, the Netherlands, the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland, Spain, China, Turkey and Russia. While the number of German visitors remained stable, Ambiente welcomed more visitors from all growth regions of the world. Significant increases in the number of visitors were noted from the recovering economies of West and South Europe, e.g., Greece, Ireland and Spain. There were also noticeably more visitors at the fair in Frankfurt from East Europe and the Gulf Region. Moreover, the future World Cup and Olympic Games host, Brazil, was represented at this year's Ambiente by 23 percent more visitors than the year before while round 20 percent more visitors travelled to Frankfurt from this year's Ambiente Partner Country, Japan.

The increased level of visitor internationality was very well received on the exhibitor side. Nicolas Luc Villeroy, Member of the Board of Management, Villeroy & Boch AG, said, "The number of visitors from outside Germany has increased yet again and we welcomed representatives of the whole world to our exhibition stand. Ambiente is definitively established as the world's leading event for the sector." Gilde-Handwerk Macrander GmbH & Co.KG made numerous contacts to potential customers from outside Europe and overseas – "Even more than at Ambiente 2013", said General Manager Hamid Yazdtschi. "The internationality of the fair is one of the quality criteria for events at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre."

Thomas Grothkopp, Director General of the German Association for Tableware, Housewares and Home Decor (Bundesverband für den Gedeckten Tisch, Hausrat und Wohnkultur e.V.), also sees this development in a positive light: "Frankfurt is distinguished by a high degree of internationality – which is also in the interests of the German retail trade – and an outstanding overview of the latest trends and innovations. The good overall climate of consumption represents a solid foundation for placing orders, which gave this year's spring fair fresh impetus." This assessment is shared by Bernd D. Ehrengart, CEO of Lambert GmbH: "The demand in the retail trade is growing and this was reflected by an increased propensity to place orders among our customers. The volume of orders taken from the German-speaking countries was very good and we anticipate an overall increase in sales compared to last year." On the visitor side, the level of satisfaction with the fair remained unchanged at a very high 96 percent.

The Partner Country of Ambiente 2014 was Japan and next year's Partner Country – the USA – was announced at a ceremony on Monday evening. At Ambiente 2015 from 13 to 17 February, the USA will present its world of consumer goods within the framework of an extensive programme of events.

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