“The quality of the visitors is outstanding, which means that we’ve not only been able to establish very interesting contacts and get to know important people, we also received several good orders directly at the event. Beyond this, the trade fair is an excellent networking opportunity for us” reports John Richardson enthusiastically, Marketing Communications und PR Manager of British Carlisle Fluid Technologies. Nearly all 537 exhibitors (an increase of 7.2% as opposed to 2016) who participated at this year’s world’s leading trade fair for industrial coating technology from the 17th through 20th of April expressed similar levels of satisfaction. They came from 29 countries, and the proportion of companies from outside of Germany, namely 36.3%, was roughly 5% greater than in 2016.
The seventh PaintExpo also experienced a sharp rise in net exhibition floor space amounting to 16.6% for a total of 15,674 square metres (168,700 square feet). As a result, the industry meet was evenly distributed over three well-occupied halls for the first time ever at the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre. “PaintExpo has developed very well in recent years. It’s the industry sector’s leading trade fair where people meet every second year, and PaintExpo is an essential constituent of our trade fair schedule. Expansion to three exhibition halls is also highly positive in our opinion. The number of leads generated at the event rose significantly once again this year as well”, explains Martin Weidisch, Senior Marketing Specialist at J. Wagner GmbH. This is underscored by visitor numbers which increased by 12% to a total of 11,790. 35.4% of the visitors (plus 7.4%) travelled to Karlsruhe from outside of Germany. After Germany, the most well-represented visitor countries were Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Turkey. Expert visitors came to PaintExpo from a total of 88 countries (74 in 2016) around the globe. “The high level of internationalism and the distinctly positive atmosphere in the exhibition halls, as well as the satisfied faces at the trade fair booths are clear-cut indicators of the success of PaintExpo 2018 as the world’s leading trade fair”, comments Jürgen Haußmann, Managing Director of FairFair GmbH and promoter of PaintExpo. This is confirmed by Frank Berg, Managing Director of Caldan Service GmbH: “It was obvious that the visitors had become more international than at the last PaintExpo. The range of industry sectors from which the visitors originated was also very broad-based. We participate at numerous trade fairs, in Asia and America too, but where the quality and passion of the exhibitors and visitors are concerned, as well as the quality of the products, PaintExpo is the global leader. And that’s why there’s no doubt that we’ll exhibit again in two years.”

High Levels of Expertise and a Strong Propensity to Invest
In addition to the number of attending visitors and their high levels of internationalism, their expertise and propensity to invest were also decisive for the success of the trade fair. This is confirmed by Daniela Nett from the marketing department at Dürr Systems GmbH: “Our second appearance at this trade fair has confirmed that PaintExpo is one of the most important trade fairs for us, and that this is precisely where we need to be. The visitors know exactly what they want, so that highly concrete discussions can take place based on actual projects. Furthermore, we meet up with visitors here from a great variety of industry sectors. This is also one of the reasons we like to exhibit here. Instead of running from one specialised trade fair to the next, all of the sectors relevant for us are represented here.” Dr. Peter Dolscheid, Managing Director of DOK Chemie, reports similar experience: “Nearly all of our visitors came to us with concrete tasks. This made it possible for us to arrange for the processing of numerous samples and to schedule visits at various companies, which is ideal for initiating new business contacts. PaintExpo is the meeting place for our customers and they expect us to be here. And thus we have a duty to exhibit and will be here again in two years.” Tiemo Sehon, Managing Director of Sehon Innovative Lackieranlagen GmbH, was also pleased with orders taken at the trade fair booth: “PaintExpo is the world’s leading trade fair in the field of industrial coating, and we’re certainly in good hands here. We are in the refinishing business and we have been able to greet many guests from the sector here, and we have even closed orders directly at the event. In light of our know-how and experience we see our long-term future in industrial painting, and based on the leads we’ve fielded here, we assume that participation at PaintExpo will provide us with new thrust in this direction”. “This is the fourth time we’ve exhibited at PaintExpo, and things go better for our company at the trade fair each and every time. We’ve been able to establish significantly more contacts to German companies this year, as well as to companies in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, from Northern Europe, from the Balkan States, from the Middle East and from Asia”, reports Gökhan Bankoglu, Export Sales Officer at Turkish company Iba Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.. Martina Orre, Marketing Manager at Swedish company HangOn AB, also confirms that PaintExpo is the platform at which numerous companies present new and further-developed solutions: “We’ve already exhibited several times at PaintExpo. This year we have nearly doubled our booth floor space because we are presenting our new handbook, which has been published in 21 languages and includes 240 new products. We have invited our distributors and customers from all over the world to this presentation. We feel that it’s important to introduce our new products and the handbook at PaintExpo, because it’s the most important trade fair for our customers, and thus for us as well.” Dr. Nils Reinke, Managing Director of Winterthur Instruments AG in Switzerland, also reports on successful participation at the trade fair: “We founded our company seven years ago and we’ve been exhibiting at PaintExpo ever since. We have been able to continuously increase booth floor space to a considerable extent. The trade fair is highly significant for the development of our company because it provides us with an ideal platform for presenting our products. Aside from this, we gain a great deal of input for the further development of our products thanks to the broad spectrum of visitors who come to our booth.”

Worldwide Information and Procurement Platform
One of the essential reasons for PaintExpo’s strong appeal for users from all over the world is its unique concentration of companies from the field of industrial coating technology. This results in comprehensive and targeted product and service offerings ranging from pre-treatment, as well as painting, systems and applications technology, right on up to final inspection and packaging, the likes of which is unmatched by any other trade fair anywhere in the world. This makes it possible for job-shop coaters as well as companies with in-house painting operations from all industry sectors to gather information and procure solutions with minimal legwork.

The next PaintExpo, for which numerous exhibitors have already confirmed their participation, will take place at the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre from the 21st through 24th of April, 2020.
www.paintexpo.com.