Exhibitors met with numerous high-ranking visitors from all around the globe. A lot of the exhibitors had so many attendees at their stands that they reached their capacity limits several times. According to the exhibitors, visitor interest and qualification as well as their willingness to invest were clearly higher than at the excellent previous event in 2011. Many exhibitors rated the concrete business deals and sales concluded, which partially were spontaneous, as particularly positive.
Friedbert Klefenz, President of the interpack Exhibitors’ Advisory Board 2014 and President of Bosch Packaging Technology, stated: “We are very satisfied with the quantity and quality of the visitors at our stand. The interest in our technologies that make a vital contribution to global health and nutrition was enormous. We are pleased with the high number of leads received, including many top executives and potential new customers. Similar comments were made by other exhibitors. We were equally thrilled by the high number of international visitors and exhibitors – some 75% of the exhibiting companies are headquartered outside of Germany. With these results, interpack has confirmed its status as the world’s No. 1 trade fair for the packaging sector.”
“interpack provided impressive proof of its leading international position again this year. This success confirms our fundamental philosophy of addressing the international industries in their respective markets in a very targeted manner--already in the run-up to the trade fair--thereby bringing them to their most important event in Düsseldorf every three years,” explained Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf.
With a foreign visitor participation of 66%, interpack 2014 not only set a new record for itself but also reached a top rating across all Messe DĂĽsseldorf trade fairs. The interpack 2014 visitors travelled to DĂĽsseldorf from 120 nations.
The dominating topics at interpack 2014 were resource efficiency for equipment and machinery as well as for packaging material usage, quality and safety to guarantee perfect and counterfeit-proof finished products--especially in such sensitive segments as food/beverage and pharmaceuticals--as well as diversity and flexibility for an ever wider range and shorter product cycles. These themes were addressed by a particularly high number of innovations presented by the exhibiting companies.
However, interpack emphasized its importance not only with the sheer multitude of innovations and wide range of products but also with especially innovative themes, added Bernd Jablonowski, Director of interpack & SAVE FOOD: “For a leading international trade fair it is not enough just to rent exhibit space and offer perfect organization. Trend themes must be identified, anchored in the concept and finally also driven in a consistent manner. This is the only way to secure thematic leadership in an industry. We have succeeded in doing this very well once again this year. The concepts of both the Innovationparc Packaging and the METAL PACKAGING PLAZA were a perfect fit for the target groups.”
SAVE FOOD was a popular topic at interpack 2014. The SAVE FOOD initiative of Messe DĂĽsseldorf fights food loss and waste and involves partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) as well as over 110 members from the industry. The SAVE FOOD Congress started the day before interpack 2014. On the first day it addressed non-profit organizations, highlighting the problems from political and social angles while on the second day, companies presented their solutions and best practices. Even more impressively than at the premiere event three years ago, the Congress showed how the problem of global food loss and waste can be fought across the entire value chain.
Exact dates for interpack 2017, also to take place in Dusseldorf, Germany, will be announced at a later date.
