NEWS | Round-up
ISH trade show 2019
ISH cancels live element of show
MESSE FRANKFURT, the
organiser of Europe’s biggest bathroom trade event, ISH, has been forced to cancel the live element of the show due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. ISH will now take place as a purely a digital event on March 22-26. The announcement follows a period of extreme uncertainty for the exhibition, during which it lost the support of two of its biggest exhibitors – Grohe and Hansgrohe – after they withdrew their commitment over Covid-19 safety fears.
In a statement Messe Frankfurt blamed the “tightening of travel restrictions” and “growing uncertainty among trade fair customers” as two of the main reasons behind its decision to make ISH 2021 an online event.
EXCLUSIVE
‘Local retail has never been stronger,’ says Euronics boss as post-Covid sales smash 2019 levels
IN AN exclusive interview with kbbreview, Stuart Cook (pictured), chief executive of Combined Inde pendent Holdings (CIH), said local retail has never been stronger and reported that sales post-Covid at the buying group were significantly ahead of the same period last year. CIH is part of the Euronics buying group. Cook revealed that its electrical retail members have experienced
4
strong sales during and after the lockdown.
Cook said that during April and May, the buying group delivered around 70% of the goods it would normally have done. In March, the freezer buying frenzy saw sales rise by 100%, meaning a growth of 37% year on year. Moving into June, sales were up 25% on the same month in 2019, July was up 69%, August was up 50% – and he predicted that September
would also be up by around 50%. Cook added: “I am fed up with hearing online, online, online and ‘all you little retailers are dead’. That is not the picture we are seeing. So I’d just like to say that local retail is not dead, it has never been stronger.”
He added that during lockdown, 90% of his retail members remained open and kept trading behind closed doors with doorstep deliveries until installations were later permitted again.
· November 2020
The decision has been taken now, the organisation says, to allow “sufficient time will remain for all participants to design and implement an attractive digital ISH”. Wolfgang Marzin, president and chief executive of Messe Frankfurt, said: “Over the past months, we have done everything possible to ensure that ISH 2021 can also be held as a classic trade fair with personal encounters.
“Unfortunately, the latest pandemic developments have led to growing uncertainty among both exhibitors and visitors. Coupled with the renewed tightening of official and corporate travel restrictions, this means it is no longer possible to hold ISH as a physical event offering the customary high standard of quality.”
‘Our trade fairs are going to take place,’ says Interzum and Living Kitchen organiser
KOELNMESSE, THE organiser of Interzum, Living Kitchen and imm Cologne, has reassured exhibitors and visitors that its trade fairs will return live next year in Cologne. The company made the reassuring announcement days after ISH cancelled its live event. Imm Cologne, which incorporates Living Kitchen, is already set to take place live in January 2021. The Interzum show in Cologne on May 4-7 next year has reported bookings on a par with the same time for 2019.
Koelnmesse is in constant consultation with its exhibitors and partners to make sure that the trade fairs will be safe and approved by the local authorities. Gerald Böse, president and chief executive of Koelnmesse, said: “The timing of the (ISH) Frankfurt decision is surprising, especially with the trade fair market now coming back to life in Germany, too. But every trade fair location has to face the effects of the pandemic in its own way and take decisions of its own based on the particulars of its own portfolio. “Naturally, we here in Cologne will continue to pursue our plans to begin organising fairs on our trade fair grounds in the near future. These plans have been discussed and coordinated extensively with our exhibitors and visitors. The sectors want to start taking part in trade fairs again – always subject to the premise of safety and, of course, approvals by the authorities.”
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