ESSEN, Germany—This year's “Reifen” trade show, May 27-30 at Messe Essen, generated its fair share of news, both exhibition- and exhibitor-related.
On the trade show side of the ledger, Messe Essen G.m.b.H., the organizer of the biennial Reifen show, and Messe Frankfurt G.m.b.H, the organizer of the Automechanika trade shows for the tire and automotive service markets, agreed to cross-promote their shows in order to “exploit synergistic effects of sales and marketing” across borders.
From the exhibitors' viewpoint, much attention was focused on plans by non-European tire makers to build manufacturing and/or sales and distribution networks in Europe.
The trade show partners Messe Frankfurt and Messe Essen hope to attract more tire-centric exhibitors and visitors to the various Automechanika events, and more auto service-oriented exhibitors and visitors to the Reifen shows, Michael Johannes, a vice president for Messe Frankfurt, and Oliver Kuhrt, managing director of Messe Essen, said.
The strategic partnership will begin with Automechanika shows scheduled in 2014 for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Moscow, Frankfurt and Buenos Aires and will continue for the inaugural Automechanika Chicago, scheduled for April 24-26, 2015, the executives said.
The Reifen trade show, which has taken place in Essen every two years since 1960, will continue to be based in Essen, Messrs. Kuhrt and Johannes said at a press conference held at the Essen Fairgrounds, where they announced their organizations would cross-promote their events under the “Unique/United” banner.
The two trade fair promotion entities' cooperation for Reifen in Germany will start after the 2016 show, however, because Messe Essen and the German Tire Trade Association (BRV) have a co-sponsoring contract covering that event.
The BRV, however, intends to stage its own trade show in Cologne, Germany, starting in 2018.
“With Reifen Essen, we have found an appropriate partner to expand this part of the portfolio even further for the whole brand,” said Detlef Braun, managing director of Messe Frankfurt.
It's possible, for example, to have a Reifen-sponsored pavilion for tire industry exhibitors within Automechanika, Mr. Johannes said.
In the U.S., Messe Frankfurt is partnering with Advanstar Communications Inc., the Santa Monica, Calif.-based trade show organizer and trade magazine publisher, to stage Automechanika Chicago, which they claim will be the largest U.S. trade show dedicated to high-end technical training and management classes for automotive technicians and shop owners.
Automechanika Chicago, however, potentially will face some heretofore-unexpected competition: The organizers of the annual Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo in Panama are planning to bring their franchise to the U.S. in the form of the World Tire & Retread Expo, scheduled for April 15-17, 2015, in New Orleans.
Gustavo Lima, CEO of Oriente Triangle Latin America Inc. and Latin Expo Group L.L.C., said he decided to stage a “show and sell” trade show in the U.S. because “we tire industry professionals do not have our own exclusive tire expo” in North America.
The 2014 Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo, scheduled for July 23-25 in Panama City, Panama, is sold out, Latin Expo Group said.
As for Reifen 2014, attendance of about 20,000 represented a 5-percent gain over the 2012 event, with attendees from outside of Germany up about 12 percent, Messe Essen disclosed at the end of the four-day event.
Messe Essen said preparations are under way for Reifen 2016 and 2018, the latter of which will be the 30th edition of the fair held biennially since 1960. The 2018 event also will be competing with a new trade show, Tire Cologne, tentatively scheduled for May that year as well.
Attendance this year was from 130 countries, Messe Essen said, with nearly two-thirds coming from outside Germany.
The show hosted a record 670 exhibitors from 44 nations, including 20 from the U.S. and Canada and 146 from China.
Tire Cologne was announced earlier this year by the BRV—which has been a supporting partner of Reifen for many years—after plans to modernize and expand the Essen fairgrounds fell through.
This tire show soap opera started earlier this year with the cancellation in March of Pneu Expo in Lyon, France, due to a lack of exhibitors.
During the show, Messe Essen recognized four industry suppliers—Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., wheel maker Borbet G.m.b.H., the Italian equipment maker CEMB S.p.A. and Counteract Balancing Beads—with the show's “Innovation Awards” for best technology, products, services and processes.
Yokohama's Technology/Products award was for its work on developing a process for showing the aerodynamic and acoustic profile of a rolling tire—work that should lead to quieter tires, according to the company.
Borbet earned the award for Environment/Resource Conservation for its “nature wheel” development, which modifies the traditional alloy metal process with a natural mineral, yielding a weight reduction without performance tradeoffs.
CEMB was honored with the Service Concept/Process Optimization award for its Paguro P2 wheel balancing system for commercial vehicles that lends itself to mobile service applications.
Counteract earned an award for Motor Vehicle Service for its “Stud Cleaning Tool.”