Quite satisfied

This Spoga+Gafa was better than its advance reputation had suggested, a reputation which quite a few interlocutors would like to have seen confirmed in the course of the event. What would happen on the exhibitor side turned out as expected under the given economic situation: the garden tools sector, and motorised equipment in particular, was present only in remnants (if you ignore the fact that numerous manu-facturers were represented at the fair, not as exhibitors but certainly as visitors), while practically noone was left in the area of soils and pest control apart from one big name. How about some facts? In defiance of all the worried faces at the fair: the number of visitors saw an increase of 1.4 per cent on 2012 to a total of 36 800. The visitors came from 116 countries, while the proportion coming from abroad remained the same at 58 per cent. But no talking will change the fact that the number of exhibitors was down by a good eight per cent to 1 817. The international share went up by one point to 82 per cent. That may be positively assessed as an indicator of the international significance of the event, though it also means that the German garden industry is tending to view the world fair on its doorstep with increasing scepticism. And something else can be found among these facts: the halls attracted a very varied amount of footfall. Which is why the assessments turn out to be just as varied. But one frequently heard sentence could not be ignored: “We are satis-fied.” For right from the first day on the buyers were there, from DIY chains and cooperatives as well as garden centres. And it was not least foreign DIY retailers who took advantage of this German fair: the European DIY retail association Edra talks of “110 top international buyers”, which is more than last year. Nevertheless, despite all the positive assessments one thing must not be overlooked: that these evaluations are equally indebted to the economic framework that was evident in advance. Why, you can hear the relief that – also in relation to the industry’s overall situation – because of the relatively good summer, things did not get worse, as could be expected after a spring that many describe as “catastrophic”. This is how the organisers see it. The Spoga+Gafa event has reaffirmed its role as an international garden fair in the opinion of Katharina C. Hamma, managing director of Koelnmesse. “We were able to welcome more visitors from more countries here in Cologne and are…