GERMANY – From January 16 to the 22nd the trade fair duo of imm cologne and LivingKitchen achieved for the first time more than 150,000 visitors as reported by the event’s organizer, Koelnmesse GmbH. The international importance of the parallel trade fairs was also made evident as one in two trade visitors came from outside Germany. Also present in Cologne were the top 30 global retail.

Of the 104,000 trade visitors, around 56,000 came from Germany and approximately 48,000 from abroad (an increase of 4 per cent). Within Europe, increases in visitor figures were recorded in particular from Spain (up 25 per cent), Russia (up 26 per cent), Italy (up 19 per cent) and the UK (up 13 per cent). Visitor numbers from the Netherlands and Poland also increased. Numbers of overseas trade visitors rose, in particular visitors from China (up 5 per cent), South Korea (up 12 per cent) and India (up 5 per cent). A rise was also recorded in visitor numbers from the Middle East (up 19 per cent), with particularly strong growth from the United Arab Emirates. With these excellent numbers of foreign visitors, the two trade fairs will boost exhibitors’ exports.

Koelnmesse Chief Operating Officer Katharina C. Hamma emphasized the quality of the trade visitors: “No other event brings supply and demand together as effectively in this quality as imm cologne and LivingKitchen.” Initial evaluations of the results showed that the trade visitors included large numbers of the global top 30 retail chains, such as John Lewis, Home Retail Group, Harveys Furniture −all from the UK − as well as Conforama from France and Nitori from Japan. The major industry players in online retail − including Amazon and the Otto Group − also used the event intensively for their businesses. With these results, the trade fair duo has confirmed its importance for the interior design industry’s global commercial operations on a national and an international level.

The next imm cologne will take place from 15 to 21 January 2018 in Cologne, co- located with LivingInteriors.