EUROBIKE 2008: The bike business shifts into high gear

Bicycles are more popular than ever and the bike business is booming. The international bicycle trade show shifted up another gear in 2008 with a record attendance of 36,800 trade visitors from 75 countries, some 18,000 bicycle fans on Open House Day and 1,430 journalists from 32 countries. With over 200 new innovations at this year’s trade show, EUROBIKE has positioned itself as the world’s leading trade show with top-quality offers.

“When it comes to the range and excellence of our offers, today we cover everything that the industry produces in bicycles and accessories,” said Messe Friedrichshafen CEO Klaus Wellmann, summing up the extremely positive results achieved by EUROBIKE 2008. Now that the 2008 show is over, organizers are already gearing up for next year’s event. When the expansion of the exhibition grounds is completed next year, the show will feature 100,000 sqm of space, and the trade show team is confident that all major brands and relevant product groups will again be on hand in Friedrichshafen. This year’s EUROBIKE broke all the records again. There was a significant increase in attendance figures with 7.6 percent more trade visitors than the previous year, and an eight-percent increase among exhibitors. With 938 companies from 36 countries (70 percent came from abroad), the show also set a new record for the number of exhibitors. “In Friedrichshafen the spotlight is on more than just world premieres. Here we have the entire bicycling world represented in 13 exhibition halls and on 85,000 square meters,” says Project Manager Stefan Reisinger.

“We had large crowds on the trade visitor days,” said Christoph Goebel, Chairman of the German Association of Bicycle Wholesalers and Exporters (ZGA) and Managing Partner of Grofa GmbH. Many other exhibitors at the show were also pleased with the enormous response at their stands. “The bicycle business is booming. Trade visitors in Friedrichshafen placed a considerable number of orders,” said Stefan Reisinger. Following a large number of talks with exhibitors, he reported that many important deals had been concluded at the event.

EUROBIKE is a major media event
International trade publications, news media and TV and radio networks devoted a great deal of attention to the topic of bicycles and EUROBIKE. A total of 1,430 journalists (2007: 1,280) from 32 countries visited the international trade show – 10 percent more than the previous year. More than half the journalists came from abroad. Most of them are from European countries, but many media representatives from Asia, America and Australia also reported on EUROBIKE.

DEMO DAY in Argenbühl
It was an entire day devoted to testing bikes, rough riding over fields and meadows, and talking about the latest technology with bicycle experts. The second DEMO DAY in the beautiful region of Allgäu offered the ideal location for this extremely popular industry event: 1,400 retailers and 370 media representatives visited the DEMO DAY base camp.

Survey: trade visitors’ reactions
The economic situation was assessed by 90 percent of the trade visitors surveyed as stable to rapidly growing. A survey conducted by an independent market research company revealed that visitors are overall very optimistic about the continued development of the bicycle market. When asked about the significance of EUROBIKE, 95 percent rated it as “very important” or “important.” The entire range of offers at EUROBIKE was rated by 83 percent as “good” or “excellent.”

Improving the flow of traffic
In order to handle the large number of visitors from around the world, a number of measures were introduced at EUROBIKE 2008 to make traffic flow more smoothly. “We’re not yet satisfied with the results,” said Messe Friedrichshafen CEO Klaus Wellmann, adding that this challenge required further attention. Trade show organizers have already met with police and city officials to consult on ways to direct traffic even more effectively in the future. There are also plans to create more parking spaces directly on the exhibition grounds.

New opening days in 2009
The bicycle show will be open on different days of the week next year. The DEMO DAY will take place on 1 September and EUROBIKE will be open from Wednesday through Saturday, 2-5 September 2009 at the exhibition grounds in Friedrichshafen. Open House Day will be on Saturday, 5 September 2009.

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