Organisers of ISM, the international sweets and snacks trade show, have announced that more than 37,000 trade visitors attended the four-day event in Cologne, Germany.
Visitors from 148 countries attended ISM, while exhibitor numbers jumped 7.5% to 1,774, from 76 countries.
This was the 50th edition of ISM, which highlighted its importance to the global sweets and snacks market.
Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of organiser Koelnmesse, said: “In its anniversary year, the leading global trade fair for sweets and snacks is once again bringing all of the internationally relevant market participants from the industry and trade together in this magnitude and is thus confirming its function as the most important business hub, export driver and innovation platform for the sweets industry. The top decision-makers from all over the world meet up in Cologne in the space of just four days.”
Bastian Fassin, Chairman of the International Sweets & Biscuits Fair Task Force and member of the board of the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry, said that ISM is indispensable for the sweets industry.
“With its numerous innovations, it brings new dynamics into the national and international trading activities of the market leaders and the medium-sized companies year after year and thus sets important impulses for the future for the entire industry,” Fassin said.
Robert Laing of Messe Reps. & Travel told FMCG Business: “The share of foreign exhibitors at ISM is 87.5 %. This means of the 1774 exhibitors at ISM, nearly 9 out of every 10 of these companies travelled to Cologne from their own country to do so. On the visitor side 7 out of every 10 visitors at the fair also travelled to Cologne from their own countries. This highlights again the internationality of the trade fair and the importance of third country business at an event like ISM. Certainly there are many German participants and this is no surprise, but what is more important is the overwhelming number of exhibitors and visitors from outside Germany specifically making the trip to Cologne to take part and to meet the leading players in the industry from throughout the world.”
For more information on ISM and other trade shows, contact Robert Laing at www.messereps.co.nz or phone 09 2126200.
ISM ran alongside ProSweets Cologne, the international supplier fair for the industry, from 31 January until 3rd February. Organisers announced ProSweets Cologne, which featured 260 exhibitors from 32 countries, had registered more than 18,000 trade visitors from more than 100 countries.
Photocredit: Koelnmesse / ISM / Author
