Visitor growth thanks to larger exhibition hall & internationalization

With growth in exhibition space, visitor and exhibitor numbers and internationalization, the 11th International Trade Fair for Distribution, Materials Handling and Information Flow, LogiMAT, draws a positive balance of the three days of the fair.

Under the motto "Intralogistics without detours - marketplace of innovations", 1,003 exhibitors (an increase of 9.1 percent compared to the record year 2012) from 26 countries - including 130 new registrations - presented the industry's latest product and solution offerings from February 19 to 21.

For the first time, LogiMAT occupied six halls in the north and south wings of the Stuttgart exhibition grounds - a total of 74,000 square meters of exhibition space. With 181 international companies, almost one in five exhibitors came from abroad.

In addition to companies from Germany, companies from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Austria were the most strongly represented nations. 14 exhibitors came from overseas.

"The fact that LogiMAT is increasingly attracting exhibitors from overseas is evidence of the great importance that the trade fair is also attributed outside Europe as a platform for presenting companies and services as well as for initiating international business relationships"

says Exhibition Director Peter Kazander.

Despite the capricious weather and strikes at several feeder airports, LogiMAT attracted 29,500 trade visitors (+ 1.5 percent). One in eight trade fair visitors traveled from abroad - ten percent of them from overseas.

Overall, trade visitors were satisfied with LogiMAT 2013: 86.2 percent rated the intralogistics trade fair as "very good" to "good". Peter Kazander is convinced that this once again underlines LogiMAT's function as an annual barometer for the development of the intralogistics industry.

International projects and the export sector are booming, which is why the forecasts for the coming years are excellent.

"Thanks to intralogistics trends such as resource efficiency, information management and automation, all signs point to further growth in the sector."

The increasing internationalization and the optimistic economic outlook for the industry would not remain without effects on LogiMAT 2014. This will take place in Stuttgart from February 25 to 27, 2014.