News

Focus Küche & Bad 2009:
top event for Europe's kitchen and bathroom sector

One of the main highpoints of the ninth Focus Küche & Bad show in Hiddenhausen was the buzz amongst exhibitors and visitors. Even during difficult economic times, the trade platform has once again proven itself to be the biggest magnet for visitors during the autumn trade fair calendar in eastern Westphalia. 11 150 visitors were able to visit the stands of 89 exhibitors, covering a floor space of 11 000 m2, at the Hiddenhausen exhibition centre.

As in every other year Focus Küche & Bad was a major event at which the most important decision-makers in the industry came together to showcase innovations and new information. Experts from companies, owners of bathroom and kitchen studios, designers, architects, decision-makers from wholesale, purchasing associations, furniture stores and various other representatives from manual trades were attracted to Focus Küche & Bad in September.

For the first time ever, this year event organiser Survey Marketing + Consulting (Bielefeld) recorded visitor numbers following the guidelines of the FKM (Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics in Berlin (www.fkm.de), as it did at other Survey events in Germany and Italy. Between 19 and 25 September, Survey recorded a total of 11 150 visitors (compared with 13 000 last year, not using the FKM check). One trend which really stood out this year was that visitors spent considerably less time at the show. Many specialists working in this sector were clearly watching their travel costs and instead of spending two or three days at the show, just came for the one. Yet despite this, it was the right decision-makers who made the trip to Focus Küche & Bad, and the majority of exhibitors were very satisfied with the quality and volume of visitors as well as their eagerness to place orders. Once again the Sunday on the opening weekend was the busiest day and the organiser recorded considerably more visitors than in the previous year on the Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ratio of visitors from home and abroad was virtually unchanged: 84 percent of visitors came from Germany, making this the largest catchment area for Focus Küche & Bad, while the remaining 16 percent of all visitors had travelled from abroad. The total number of visitor nations was 46 (last year: 44) which proves that Focus Küche & Bad remains an attractive event on the international market. Most international visitors have traditionally come from the neighbouring countries of Holland and Belgium and this year the balance has swung in favour of the Belgians, who represented close to 18 percent of foreign visitors (2008: close to 16 percent), while the figures for Holland fell slightly from 42 to 40 percent . Combined, these two countries once again accounted for more than nine percent of all visitors to Focus Küche & Bad. Places three to ten amongst visiting nations were held by Austria, Switzerland, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and Luxembourg.

Top exhibitors in Hiddenhausen

At Focus Küche & Bad 2009, 89 (previous year: 102) supplier and manufacturing companies and service providing associations for the sector showcased their product and design innovations for built-in kitchens, worktops, dish-washing, taps, electrical devices, lighting, built-in systems, accessories and kitchen planning software. Famous names including Bauknecht, Baumatic, Blanco, Beko, Best, Damixa, Electrolux, Franke, Gorenje, Liebherr, Naber, Schock and Villeroy & Boch attended the 2009 event as specialists, showcasing interesting product innovations and enriching the range of exhibitors at Focus Küche & Bad for visitors.

Last year, event organiser Survey Marketing + Consulting had welcomed plenty of new exhibitors to Hiddenhausen and most of them were back again this year: Abbina Germany, Berbel Ablufttechnik, EK Servicegroup, Grupp Metall/Meyer Stahlmöbel, Hündling Plattentechnik, Küche & Co., Quooker Deutschland, Sedia Küchentechnik and Stone.de. Some providers such as Compusoft and Wesco - M. Westermann had even extended the size of their stands for the exhibition this September. Companies exhibiting for the first time this year included Adler Dunstabzugshauben, Clage, FB Vertriebs-GmbH, Fischer-Lange, Magna Westfalia, Weibel Abluft-Tuning and Wertgarantie Technische Versicherung AG.

Once again the major purchasing associations such as AMK, Der Kreis, EK Servicegroup, Küchen-Areal – Garant-Möbel Marketing, Küchen Partner and Küchentreff used the opportunity offered up by Focus Küche & Bad to present their extensive selection of services.

The sector looks to the future with cautious optimism

The German Kitchen Manufacturers’ Association (Verband der deutschen Küchenmöbelindustrie e.V., VdDK) held its annual press conference at the trade fair on 21 September and provided information on current trends in the kitchen sector. As VdDK Chairman Stefan Waldenmaier told the audience, members of the German Kitchen Manufacturers’ Association, who make up close to 95 % of the German market, are entering the last quarter with cautious optimism. Waldenmaier based his statement on internal surveys which indicated greatly stabilised demand from within Germany. The survey didn’t gauge turnover, just the number of orders by way of volume and not price. The findings showed that by half way through year on 30 June 2009, orders received from within Germany had fallen slightly by 0.5 %, whereas orders from abroad had fallen much more sharply by 10.9 %. Given that the average price of kitchens has fallen slightly, by the end of the year the VdDK is therefore expecting sales within Germany to have fallen by between around 4 and 5 %. Their figures differ wildly from the official statistics of the Federal Statistical Office who have calculated a drop in sales of 14.6 %. The VdDK believes that these figures are somewhat exaggerated.

Mixed signals for business from abroad, demand from within Germany is more reliable

According to the VdDK, the 2009 trends for business from abroad were much worse. While exports have in the past always compensated for low levels of domestic demand, the ratio of domestic to foreign business has been virtually reversed. The sector has had to absorb massive falls in demand from abroad, especially from traditional sales regions such as the UK and Spain. Internal order figures also confirm this trend, showing that by 30.06.2009, orders from abroad had fallen by 10.9 %.

As the association’s chairman Waldenmaier explained there do however also seem to be initial signs of the economy picking up in some regions. Real estate in Asia in particular has picked up significantly. Waldenmaier believes this is the result of the huge economic stimulus packages in China which have favoured the construction sector almost exclusively and therefore also impacted on real estate. On the other hand, the sector is continuing to fair badly in places such as the US and Eastern Europe.

The impetus for the last quarter of this year and for next year is to build on the propensity of consumers in Germany to spend money. Waldenmaier believes there is plenty of scope for this. The end of the car scrappage scheme could also impact positively on the sector, as Waldenmaier explains. “Because of state funding, in 2009 consumers preferred to buy a car than a kitchen. But because this subsidy programme has now ended, we believe that consumers’ choices will again switch back to the purchases they have held back on in the living and furnishing sector.”

Focus Küche & Bad will run between 18 and 24 September 2010 at the Hiddenhausen exhibition centre.
For more information about Focus Küche & Bad, please visit www.f-kb.de