Oberboihingen – Lots of valuable leads, numerous concrete RFQs and business transacted directly at the event assured a good mood amongst the 327 exhibitors at the 3rd PaintExpo. And this offers good reason to hope that growth can once again be expected in the coatings industry, which has already been substantiated by the 3rd edition of the leading international trade fair for industrial coating technology which took place in Karlsruhe (Germany) from the 13th through the 16th of April, 2010: Exhibitor numbers increased by 14%, and PaintExpo visitor numbers grew by 8% to a total of 6397.

"PaintExpo is very well accepted by our customers and other interested parties because it offers an extremely clear-cut picture of the entire coatings industry. All of the relevant companies from all fields of industrial coating technology are represented here in a concentrated fashion. We’re very satisfied with the quantity and the quality of the visitors again this year", reports Martin Weidisch from marketing services at J. Wagner GmbH, who has participated at all three events to date. And industry presence was concentrated like never before: 327 exhibitors, 14% more than in 2008, took part at the 3rd edition of the specialised trade fair for industrial coating technology. 20.5% of the exhibitors came from outside of Germany, representing 15 different countries. Trade fair offerings, which were focused exclusively on products and services for the entire scope of the liquid painting, powder coating and coil coating process sequences, attracted 6397 visitors to Karlsruhe – an 8% increase. Foreign visitors who journeyed from a total of 62 countries made up roughly 19.5% of the total number. This growth, as well as increasing levels of internationalism, underscore PaintExpo’s undisputed top ranking as an industry event for industrial coating technology.

Specialist Visitors with High Levels of Decision Making Authority

In addition to the large numbers of specialist visitors, the exhibitors were also enthusiastic about their technical qualifications and decision making authority. "Visitors who attend PaintExpo are a dream-come-true for anyone who’s involved with customer consultation. All of them are engineers, technicians or process engineering experts – exactly the kind of people we want to hook up with. We’re able to discuss things with them at a highly technical level", explains Achim Trefz, assistant sales manager from SATA GmbH & Co. KG. Things took on very concrete contours at the booth operated by I.L.S. Vertriebs GmbH & Co. KG as well, as described by sales manager Michael Müller: "PaintExpo is demonstrating very positive development, and has been extremely successful for us. We had more visitors at our booth and customers who placed orders that we did at the last trade fair." Lübbo Röttgers, director of application technology for GI liquids at Relius Coatings GmbH & Co. KG, who participated at the leading trade fair for industrial coating technology for the first time together with BASF, summed things up in a similar way: "We were able to establish good contacts at PaintExpo, and we’ve discovered that the decision makers really do come to this trade fair." Frank Wübben, district manager of the European division for industrial and automotive equipment at Graco GmbH, is also very pleased with the way things went at the trade fair: "It’s strictly a technical trade fair without any so-called hunter-gatherers, but rather specialist visitors only. This made it possible for us to pick up highly interesting leads, and I assume that we’ll exhibit at PaintExpo again in 2012." Siegfried Nittmann of Nittmann Filters for painting and air-conditioning systems is already convinced that he’ll participate at the trade fair again in two years: "Lots of customers have visited us here, and numerous new contacts have been established with employees from companies in the automobile and automotive supplier industries, as well as from the electronics industry and machinery manufacturing all over Europe. Experience has shown that customer relations evolve from roughly 50% of the contacts we make at PaintExpo. And we’ll have a bigger booth at the trade fair in 2012 for this reason", says the company’s proprietor. Bettina Love, assistant to general management at SurTec Deutschland GmbH arrives at nearly identical conclusions: "Our first appearance at PaintExpo has paid off, and we’ll be back again next time around." Some of the exhibitors were surprised by the high levels of visitor internationalism. "We’ve received lots of concrete RFQs for our water treatment technology division. It’s been somewhat surprising for me that project RFQs have come to a large extent from North Rhine – Westphalia and northern Germany on the one hand, and on the other hand from foreign visitors. In some cases from neighbouring countries like Switzerland, Austria and France, but also from visitors from, for example, the USA, Kazakhstan, Greece, Scandinavia and Slovakia. My impression is that PaintExpo has become more international", explains Stephan Heuer, managing director of Hardo Heuer GmbH. "We participated for the first time at PaintExpo this year, and things went surprisingly well for us at the trade fair. The visitors were highly interested and very knowledgeable. During our discussions it became apparent that we were dealing with employees of industrial companies who were looking for solutions to actual problems. And they came from both inside and outside of Germany. We had visitors from Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Korea, France, Holland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Russia and other countries at our booth", sums up Rüdiger Kaiser, sales manager at E.M.M. Deutschland GmbH.

Ideal Opportunities for Gathering Information

PaintExpo is first choice for users around the world as well, wherever solutions are required for the liquid painting, powder coating and coil coating process sequences. This is not least due to the fact that the leading trade fair is focused exclusively on industrial coating technology, and presents internationally comprehensive and diverse offerings ranging from pre-treatment, paints and application techniques, right on up to final inspection. The next PaintExpo, leading international trade fair for industrial coating technology, will take place in Karlsruhe from the 17th through the 20th of April, 2012.

For Information:
Jürgen Haußmann
FairFair GmbH
Max-Eyth-Strasse 19
72644 Oberboihingen, Germany
Tel. +49.7022.6025510
Fax +49.7022.6025577
E-mail: info@paintexpo.de
www.paintexpo.de