Russia: Encouraging progress

Expocentre has good business results to celebrate during its anniversary year. The leading Russian trade fair company exceeded the national average last year as well.

Expocentre is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It all began in 1959, when the first exhibitions were held (TFI reported on that in the first issue of the year). The management team around Sergey Bednov, the director general, want to carry on where they left off last year. And what Bednov was able to report on in the spring was certainly very impressive. The net exhibition space sold and the number of exhibitors increased by 2 percent in 2018 – whereas, in the Russian trade fair industry as a whole, the numbers of exhibitors and visitors fell. Expocentre’s share of the Russian trade fair market grew to 14.2 percent as measured by number of exhibitors and 17.6 percent in terms of exhibition space sold. Last year a total of 109 trade fairs were held at the centrally located event venue by the Moskva River, including 33 of the company’s own events. A total of over 570,000 square metres of exhibition space were occupied by almost 30,000 exhibitors from 110 countries. The food show Prodexpo, the metalworking trade fair Metalloobrabotka, the furniture, fittings and upholstery trade fair Mebel and the food processing technology trade fair Agroprodmash were particularly successful.

The year 2019 started off well too. Prodexpo attracted 2,442 exhibitors in February, almost 5 percent more than in the previous year. In order to increase its exhibition space to a total of over 100,000 square metres, two temporary halls were erected. In addition to the exhibition itself, the event is also a platform for networking, as Sergey Bednov emphasises. There are numerous conferences and workshops on a great variety of topics, which offer the industry additional benefits that shouldn’t be underestimated. One example of this is provided by food safety and quality control: high-quality, safe products benefit both Russian consumers and the country’s export industry. The next Prodexpo, which will be taking place in February 2020, will be addressing this and other topical issues. 

The 20th Metalloobrabotka also went well. 1,200 exhibitors attended, 19 percent more than at the previous show. Two new areas contributed to that: welding and automation. There was also growth in the number of additive manufacturing exhibitors, according to Expocentre boss Bednov. These trends are expected to continue at the next Metalloobrabotka in May 2020. Other trade fairs are also picking up on the latest trends. Mebel, which is taking place from 18 to 22 November this year, has a new section for furnished apartments. The background to this is that there are increasing numbers of furnished apartments in the property market. Despite the fact that the situation with regard to Russian domestic demand is generally not exactly easy, the furniture sector is holding its own. According to the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, this is due to the high quality of Russian manufacturers. The trade fair also offers an opportunity to analyse how competitive they are compared to Western manufacturers (www.expocentr.ru).