UNITI expo 16, Stuttgart, Germany, 14-16 June 2016
Not long now before the second edition of UNITI expo kicks off in the capital city of Germany’s Baden-Wuerttemberg region, Stuttgart, most famous of course for being the home of high end car manufacturers Porsche and Mercedes. This important international trade fair initiative, developed two years ago as an alternative for those exhibitors and visitors from the petrol forecourt sector more used to making the biennial journey to Frankfurt’s Automechanika, features the industry’s leading solution providers with the likes of Wayne Fueling, Gilbarco, Tokheim, OPW, Franklin, Tatsuno, Bever, Brugg, Mepsan, Elaflex, Hectronic, SGB, Petrotec, PWM, Scheidt & Bachmann, Sloan and Cree all having major exhibition booths.
For the car wash sector there is a new hall incorporating enlarged stands from the market leaders of Washtec, Otto Christ and Istobal for example who are certainly upping their commitment to the 2016 event. Hall 1 is mainly dedicated to the German market, featuring organisations which market lubricants & additives, transport & logistics, payment & automation, several local oil companies & fuel retailers, plus a selection of German shop & convenience store products. An international seminar programme, shortly to be announced, staged in cooperation with the APEA and CECOD, is taking place in the show halls this year, with sessions focusing on three main areas; technology, payment and logistics. There are separate streams in place for the car wash and local shop markets. Seminar admission is free on the day, which should maximise the opportunities for visitors attending.
Great expectations
Exhibitors are certainly looking forward to UNITI expo 16, with several increasing their stand sizes from two years ago. Elaflex CEO, Stefan Kunter, a key player behind the industry’s support for the first UNITI expo commented “I feel UNITI expo 14 achieved its primary objectives and provided the international retail fuel sector with a better and more focused future alternative to Automechanika. The improved conference concept for the 2016 event should help align it much closer to the industry’s needs”. Declaring UNITI expo 14 a success, Tokheim’s Global Sales and Marketing Director, Bill Arundel, commented “UNITI expo 2014 was an effective show for us and the industry as a whole, quickly allaying concerns with regards to the move away from the Automechanika. It is important that UNITI expo 16 collectively builds on the traction and enthusiasm generated from the inaugural event” Damian Tracey, European VP of Wayne Fueling Systems, another industry supporter of UNITI expo from the outset added “UNITI expo is a major event for us and the people behind the scenes worked hard to bring it about two years ago.The 2014 event did well but we need to keep the momentum building for 2016. The key to its success is international visitors attending from outside Germany, primarily Europe of course, but also those from South East Asia, The Middle East, India, Africa and South America”. Batuhan Kiroglu, Sales Director for international fuel dispenser and automation provider Mepsan, shares the view with Damian that UNITI expo 14 got off to a good start, but he also agrees that the event should move on for the 2016 edition, saying that “We are looking forward to UNITI expo 16, but ideally we would like more petrol stations attending from outside Germany. Our visitor priorities are European oil company executives, International oil company executives from outside Europe and then visitors from the local market, in that order”.
Other international providers may well share similar priorities to Batuhan, however it must always be remembered that an event like UNITI Expo will always attract high numbers of local and regional visitors. Statistics analysis from pre registration and attendance figures at UNITI expo 14 indicated all the major European countries making healthy contributions to the ‘Top 10 attendees’ list, placing the Netherlands in number one spot with 137 visitors, closely followed by Austria 135, Switzerland 131, Russia 110, Spain 102, UK 91, France 80, Poland 69, Italy 67 and Czech Republic 56. The next 20 best performers from Europe accounted for a further 731 attendees, producing an average of over 35 visitors per country. This broad cross section of EU attendees undoubtedly contributed towards the rounded European feeling so apparent throughout the event. International registrations from outside Europe, put a further 286 visitors on the list, with the more notable attendances coming from USA, UAE, Nigeria, Israel, Iran and Ethiopia. Exhibitors would surely have liked more visitors to have attended from South East Asia, South America, China and India for example, but only time will tell if the timing, appeal, location and conceptual direction of UNITI expo are each strong enough to generate visitors on mass from these long haul regions.
The importance of international visitors
In a recent interview, Elmar Kühn, CEO, UNITI-KRAFTSTOFF GMBH, the owners of UNITI expo, acknowledged the importance of attracting more international visitors to UNITI expo saying “For UNITI expo 2016 we look to further increase the internationality of the event. In order to meet these expectations we have expanded our network of media partners and increased international advertising. We took the visitor portfolio from the past UNITI expo and reinforced the areas which showed further potential with more dedicated advertising. We expect more decision makers from the industry, more oil companies and petrol station networks”, a rallying statement to undoubtedly delight exhibitors, paving the way for a significant increase in the numbers of key industry buyers attending UNITI expo 16.
Just prior to erpecnews going to press, a visitor update from UE mission control informed us of pre registrations being three times more than they were for the 2014 event 12 weeks out, with 331 registrants so far signing up from 54 countries. Elmar Kühn sums up this activity in his latest quote which says “I’m very confident that we will considerably increase visitor numbers from the 2014 event and beat the benchmark of 100 visitor’s countries in 2016.” That says it all for the moment! Next month erpecnews will focus on the UNITI expo 16 seminar programme, along with the latest updates on who is going to be there, together with an update on Elmar’s international visitor drive.
More information at www.unitiexpo.com
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