Ferroforma on new exhibition site

Ferroforma, the international hardware fair, will be opening for business in the Spanish city of Bilbao for the 16th time this year. It will take place between 23 and 26 September on the exhibition site that was officially opened just this spring. Products for the DIY sector will for the first time be grouped within Bricoforma, held concurrently with the hardware fair.
Bilbao’s new trade fair centre consists of six halls offering an exhibition area of 120 000 m².
Internationality on the rise
By the end of July a total of 1 321 suppliers (more than 900 of whom are exhibiting their own products) had registered, which is around nine per cent more than two years ago. They will occupy the whole of the new complex of halls that covers 120 000 m². The net exhibition space will amount to 38 453 m², 76 per cent of which will be claimed by Ferroforma. The range on display at the hardware fair includes hand tools, power tools, hardware, wood-processing machinery, occupational safety products and shopfitting lines.
Bricorama will present 24 per cent of the total product assortment. This section will include housewares and hardware (over 50 per cent of suppliers), garden products (over 13 per cent), interior decoration and building materials (over 11 per cent). The categories of plumbing, heating, climate control, electrical, lighting and wood will also be represented.
The international quota of exhibitors comes to 53 per cent this year, which is 16 per cent higher than at the previous event in 2002. The 700 foreign firms come from 29 different countries. The biggest participator contingents are from Germany, Italy, France and the USA. Two years ago the attendance of approx. 21 266 trade visitors was recorded, with 6.3 per cent coming from abroad.
Separate DIY segment
Only with the move to the new exhibition site at Ansio/Barakaldo did it become feasible to offer a separate DIY segment within the framework of the Bricoforma event. Exhibitors offering products for DIY retailers were actually represented at previous events, but it was not possible to group the range of DIY articles together because many of the stand locations were reserved from one fair to the next. This problem has now been successfully solved at the coming fair, in line with the way the market is developing.
As Jesús González, president of the newly founded manufacturers’ association AFEB (Asociacion de Fabricantes Españoles de Bricolaje), explained during a press conference, “Do-it-yourself is the most…