• parts2clean nets major growth in 11th season
• Bilingual format sparks unprecedented interest in expert forum
parts2clean is making an impressive job of building and consolidating its position as the leading international trade fair for industrial parts and surface cleaning. In its eleventh season, which ran from 22 to 24 October this year, the fair delivered record results on all key metrics. For starters, its exhibitor list boasted 264 companies, which is a 15 percent increase from 2012 – and an all-time record. And at 6,350 square meters (68,350 sq. ft), its leased-space tally was also unprecedented. The fair featured exhibitors from 16 countries, with 20 percent coming from outside Germany.
The total visitor count over all three days of the fair was 4,982 – up just on 14 percent from 2012. And, yes, that’s a record too. The fair’s visitors came from 49 countries (as compared with 39 last year), meaning that around 20 percent of all visitors came from outside Germany. In another pleasing development, the fair’s bilingual expert forum attracted a record-breaking 2,181 participants.
“We are delighted that parts2clean has enhanced its performance significantly on all fronts and that our growth and internationalization strategy is bearing fruit,” said Olaf Daebler, Deutsche Messe’s director in charge of parts2clean. “Of course, the pleasing numbers tell only part of the story. The fair’s high level of exhibitor and visitor satisfaction are just as important if not more so.” This year, nearly all of parts2clean’s 264 exhibitors said they were satisfied with how the fair went.
Qualified trade visitors with high-level decision-making authority
One reason for the exhibitor’s high satisfaction levels – apart from the fair’s pleasing growth – is the high quality of the visitors in terms of their technical know-how and decision-making authority. About 90 percent of the visitors at parts2clean have input into their organizations’ capital investment decisions, and this is reflected in the largely project-specific dialogue that characterized discussions at the display stands.
Hans-Jörg Wössner, Managing Director, acp – advanced clean production GmbH, Germany: “parts2clean has always been a solid performer for us, but this year we made about 20 percent more contacts than in 2012, which is a fantastic result. They included a large number of qualified and high-quality new contacts and inquiries, the majority of which related to dry, partial cleaning and integrated pre-assembly cleaning solutions”.
Chuck Sexton, Sales Manager Industrial Products at the US-based cleaning media manufacturer Kyzen, was equally pleased with this year’s fair: “Once again it was an excellent show for us. We made a number of very good contacts with cleaning media users from Germany as well as other countries, such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Spain and even the USA. parts2clean is also a good opportunity to build and strengthen our relationships with manufacturers of cleaning plant and equipment.
We will be exhibiting here again in 2014.” Participation in next year’s parts2clean is likewise a clear-cut decision for Berthold Relling, Head of Cleaning Technology Industry/Laboratory at Elma Hans Schmidbauer GmbH & Co. KG, Germany: “parts2clean went well, and we are very satisfied. Our showcase at the fair yielded numerous new contacts – both here in Germany and internationally in countries such as England, Russia, Korea, India, the USA and Brazil. All of the industries that we sell to were represented at the fair.” Francesco Sala, Sales Manager at Lavo srl, Italy, also rates this year’s fair as a success: “parts2clean is the most important trade fair for our industry in Europe. In Stuttgart, we got in touch with potential customers from a wide range of industries.” Gaudenz Groen, Marketing Manager, Dürr Ecoclean GmbH, Germany, likewise attaches great importance to parts2clean: “We exhibit at a lot of trade fairs in Europe, but for us, parts2clean is easily the most important of them. The visitors we meet here tend to be of a much higher quality and much more interested in getting down to details because they come here with real projects in mind. Consequently, parts2clean is the trade fair where we unveil our innovations. For instance, this year, we showcased our EcoCCore product. The other main reason why we participate in parts2clean is that it is an excellent way to gauge the market and gather ideas for the development of new products.” These sentiments are echoed by Manfred Holzleg, General Manager, Safechem Europe GmbH, Germany: “Visitors come to parts2clean looking for expert advice and detailed solution proposals for specific task areas and cleaning problems. The level of technical detail that gets discussed here is really quite striking. And that’s why it’s so good that providers from all sectors of plant cleaning exhibit here. They can network with one another and find integrated, multidisciplinary solutions”. Rudolf Knoth-Bambule of Knoth Automation GmbH, Austria, highlighted another key benefit of parts2clean when he said, “Participating in parts2clean is a major plus for me, and not just because of the excellent contacts I make there. It also spares me a lot of international travel because it brings so many key players together under one roof.” The parts2clean fair is also a valuable platform for meetings and market intelligence, as Hakan Gülecyük, Sales Manager, Everest Elektromekanik, Turkey, explained: “We exhibit at parts2clean primarily in order to win new customers and help market our products in Western Europe. But we also invite our existing foreign representatives and agents here for meetings and use the fair to find new representatives and agents. Another important aspect is that the fair is a good place to survey our competitors and their products. This gives us a valuable, first-hand impression of current market developments.”
Bilingual expert forum attracts record participation
This year is the second time that the tried and proven expert forum has been held on a bilingual footing, with simultaneous translation of all presentations from German to English and vice versa. “The fact that participant numbers have grown nearly 24 percent to 2,181 reflects the strength and depth of interest in knowledge-sharing in the international industrial parts cleaning industry,” Olaf Daebler said.
In 2014, parts2clean will be held in its new, mid-year slot – from 24 to 26 June – in Stuttgart, Germany, and will thus be co-located for the very first time with O&S, the international trade fair for surface treatments and coatings, LASYS, the international trade fair for system solutions in laser material processing, and the AUTOMOTIVE Expo, a suite of shows dealing with various aspects of the automotive industry. www.parts2clean.com