BrauBeviale 2014: brilliant start for triple

37,200* experts – 4,390 more than in 2012 – visited BrauBeviale 2014, this year’s most important capital goods exhibition for the beverage industry. The event took place in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 11–13 November. With 42,781* m2 of display space, BrauBeviale 2014 was the biggest in its over 50-year history. 1,133* exhibitors – both world market leaders and newcomers– presented all the ingredients for a successful beverage mix: high-grade raw materials, sophisticated technologies, efficient logistics and creative marketing ideas.

“We’ve looked forward to this year’s BrauBeviale with great excitement and I must say, I’m more than satisfied with this impressive start to the triple,” sums up Director Exhibitions Andrea Kalrait. “The revised concept has been very well received – by exhibitors and visitors and the positive mood on the stands reflects an innovative and creative sector.” Stephan J. Barth, Managing Director, Joh. Barth & Sohn (D): “This exhibition is simply fun!”

Visitors praise the products on display

A good 40 per cent of the visitors travelled from abroad, especially from the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Poland. The products on display at BrauBeviale generated decisive impulses: some 98 per cent of the beverage specialists were satisfied with them, according to the result of the survey by an independent institute. The exhibitors were pleased about the high qualifications of the visitors on their stands: approx. 87 per cent are involved in investment decisions in their company.
The experts visited BrauBeviale primarily to update on new products, get an overview of the market and extend their knowledge. The concept was a success: more than two-thirds of the specialists at the exhibition obtained ideas they would like to put into practice in their own company. The main interest was in technologies for the production, filling and packing of beverages, followed by raw materials, logistic solutions and marketing ideas.

Other reasons for visiting were to cultivate business contacts and generally exchange information. Sales transactions are not actually a priority, but quite often play a role. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Niemeyer, President, KHS (GER): “We not only make contacts at BrauBeviale, but certainly do business too!”

Exhibitors expect good business

93 per cent of the exhibitors, including 45 per cent international, rate the overall success of exhibiting at BrauBeviale positively. The companies came from 47 nations, headed by companies from Germany (over 600), Italy, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. They showed visitors products and solutions along the value chain of the beverage industry. 96 per cent of the exhibitors reached their target groups and 87 per cent expect follow-up business. Ludwig Jakob, Branch Manager of plant manufacturer CHEOPS (CZ): “The visitors on our stand were very qualified and interested in our products. So we’re looking forward to good business after the exhibition. And we’ll certainly be there again next year.”

A complete success: trend theme Culture of Craft Brewing

The trend theme was just what the sector wanted. Guido Klinkhammer, Sales Director KEG, Schäfer Container Systems (GER): “We have experienced three days with a high frequency of visitors and have held some very good talks. The craft brewers are an increasingly strong target group for us too.” Many attractions were offered on the culture of craft brewing: over 120 experts from 20 countries took part in discussions at the European MicroBrew Symposium the day before the exhibition. Well-known international speakers like Charlie Papazian from the US Brewers Association, John Brauer from Brewers of Europe, and Dr. Marc Rauschmann, Managing Director of BraufactuM in Frankfurt, gave talks at the BrauBeviale Forum and always to a full house. Jim Koch, founder and Managing Director of the Boston Beer Company, kicked off the series with his keynote. Thousands of interested visitors tasted the unusual beers in the new Craft Beer Corner, where they were introduced to the variety of some 120 national and international craft beer specialities under the guidance of experts like World Champion beer sommelier Oliver Wesseloh. Fans could not only enjoy unusual beer specialities from the region in the exhibition centre, but also at the “Nürnberg BeerExperience” in the city in the evenings.

European Beer Star 2014 – Consumers’ Favourite

The European Beer Star is one of the biggest international beer competitions and BrauBeviale has been the competition’s exhibition home since 2004. The award was launched jointly by Private Brauereien Bayern, the honorary sponsor of the exhibition, and the German and European federations. Over 1,600 craft beers faced the strict judging of the international jury in 2014 and competed for the awards in Gold, Silver and Bronze in 52 categories. The visitors chose their favourite beer, the Consumers’ Favourite, from the Gold Medal winners by blind tasting on the first day of the exhibition. The Firestone Walker Brewery (USA) won the Consumers’ Favourite in Gold for its wood and barrel-aged strong beer “Stickee Monkey”. The Silver Medal went to Brauerei Aying (GER) for its “Urweisse” and Bronze to Birra del Borgo (I) for its India Pale Ale (IPA) “Re Ale Extra”. Volker Kronseder, Chief Executive Officer, Krones (GER): “I congratulate the Private Brauereien Bayern on their European Beer Star, an award that attracts additional top-class specialists to the exhibition.”

Supporting programme: new and established features successful

Over 3,000 visitors took their seats in the green rows of the stylish BrauBeviale Forum at the heart of exhibition activity and followed the presentations, workshops and panel discussions with interest on topics such as beer culture, beverage production and marketing, sustainability/energy, export, water, brand design and training.

PET@BrauBeviale offered attractive solutions for small and medium enterprises and large concerns. The market-orientated PETnology concept “connecting comPETence” took place for the first time. Visitors sourced information on the companies’ diverse spectrum of PET products and services in the PETarena and the Packaging Wall of Excellence. The PET recycling theme also attracted general interest. Irina Bremerstein, General Manager, Gütegemeinschaft Wertstoffkette PET-Getränkeverpackungen (GER): “Our association is still very young and BrauBeviale was our first exhibition. We have discussed PET recycling with many visitors at the exhibition and even gained some new members for our association.”

German beverage machinery production is world-market leader

Germany occupies first place in the world as a manufacturing and export country for both beverage technology and packaging machinery. The around 100 companies account for an export share of 85 per cent and more. China is still the largest buying country particularly for beverage packaging machinery, followed by the USA and, with distinctly lower figures, Russia, France and Great Britain. Today’s world market for packaging machinery has a volume of some 29 billion euros. Industry experts expect this market to grow by 5 to 7 per cent a year in the long term. The prospects are also good for the German sector. The VDMA Fachverband Nahrungsmittelmaschinen und Verpackungsmaschinen (German Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association) expects about 3 per cent more sales this year and around 5 per cent more in 2015. The production value of food processing and packaging machinery rose by 7 per cent to 12.4 billion euros in 2013 (2012: 11.6 billion). This record value includes the production and packaging machinery for beverages with a good 2.3 billion euros (2012: 2.2 billion). Altogether, beverage technology accounts for a production volume of more than 5 billion euros, as components and especially stretch blow-moulding machines for PET packaging are statistically accounted for elsewhere.

Global beverage consumption rising

The global consumption of packed beverages in 2013 was some 894 billion litres, about 26 billion litres more than the year before. Almost a third of this was consumed in North, Central and South America, and about a quarter in Europe. Experts forecast average annual growth of 3.8 per cent for global beverage consumption – which will result in almost 1,100 billion litres in 2018. Particularly strong growth is expected in the regions of Asia/Pacific, incl. China and Japan, and the Near East/Africa with some 7.5 and 9 per cent a year respectively. Consumption in the excellently supplied industrial nations of Western Europe is rising by only 0.5 per cent, whereas Eastern Europe will grow by 1.5 per cent a year until 2018. The global market is shared between non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks at an unchanged ratio of about 70 to 30 per cent (Euromonitor August 2014).

German beverage consumption in 2013 increased by just half a litre to 768.4 litres per head (including coffee, tea and milk). With a consumption of 106.6 litres, every German drank about “half” a beer less than the year before. The overall consumption of alcoholic drinks has also dropped by about half a litre to 137.2 litres per head. Every German throat swallowed 303.6 litres of non-alcoholic drinks, which is almost a litre more than in 2012 (beverage production associations).

The next dates for BrauBeviale

Look forward to familiar faces: 91 per cent of the exhibitors and an incredible 97 per cent of the visitors already know they want to be there again next year. Beer blogger Norbert Krines of www.bierdestages.de expressed this the best possible way: “BrauBeviale is a bit like a school reunion.”

Save the dates of the next events:
BrauBeviale 2015:      10–12 November
BrauBeviale 2016:      8–10 November

Read what exhibitors and visitors say about BrauBeviale 2014 at:
www.brau-beviale.de/opinions

* The figures for visitors, exhibitors and space at this exhibition are determined and certified according to the standard definitions of FKM, the Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics.