Sector magnet drinktec 2013 attracts more and more companies from abroad

Monday 12 March 2012

Number of applications from exhibitors from abroad is 20% higher than at the same point four years ago

drinktec is once again exercising a magnetic pull on the sector. Companies from abroad in particular are more than ever attracted to the World´s Leading Trade Fair for Beverage and Liquid Food Technology. Over half of the applications from prospective exhibitors – and 20 percent more than the same point in preparations for the last drinktec – have come from companies based outside Germany. The next drinktec takes place from September 16 to 20, 2013 at the Messe München exhibition center.

A total of 470 companies – 250 of them from outside Germany – have already secured their place at drinktec. In terms of the registrations received from abroad, the figures are around 20 percent higher than in March 2008, the same point in time ahead of the last drinktec in 2009. So far we have received applications from 27 different countries. Demand for space is also very high. To date, 18 months before the fair starts, around two-thirds of the available space has been booked.

Petra Westphal, the Exhibition Group Director responsible for drinktec at Messe München International, sees this high number of applications from abroad as a "strong vote of confidence". The fact that so many international companies had signed up so soon for drinktec 2013 was, she said, "clear proof of the high regard drinktec enjoys around the world."

The run on drinktec also reflects a reawakening of interest in investment on the part of the beverages companies. Following a backlog of investment in capital equipment that built up during the financial and economic crisis, the beverages industry is now moving forward again. In 2011 order intake in the German food and packaging machinery industry was positive across the board, which means that many companies in these segments now have full order books until well into 2012. The VDMA trade association for these businesses reckons on further growth of at least five percent in 2012, following on from a rise of eleven percent in 2011.

The demands of responsible resource management, the use of renewable energy, consumer demand for natural taste, the ever greater importance of marketing and original packaging ideas – all of this requires investment in modern technology, in contemporary equipment, says Petra Westphal: "drinktec is the world´s meeting place for this, it is the place to which an entire industry comes to discuss and decide upon new investment."

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