With trade exhibitions growing in size and popularity worldwide and the NZ hotel business expanding, now is the time to take a stand at Fine Food NZ (26 – 28 June 2016, ASB Showgrounds, Auckland).
There is no better way to find a NZ distributor, line up new customers, and meet top decision-makers in the Kiwi hospitality, foodservice, and food retail sectors.
The show is a proven path for entry to the New Zealand market with a significant number of international companies successfully exhibiting at Fine Food NZ in 2014.
“We generated over 150 leads from FFNZ and found it to be a wonderful opportunity to broaden our database of contacts and customers in NZ. Since the show we have taken on over 20 new stockists, and the list is growing. So it was definitely a worthwhile exercise. We found even though the numbers were smaller than the Australian Fine Food shows, the quality of attendees was great and the opportunities were many,” says Vicki Nguyen, Director, Jomeis Fine Foods.
The FFNZ show is held once every two years and has shown steady growth, attracting 6,404 trade visitors and buyers to the 2014 show (5% up on 2012) who spent just under NZ$8.5 million. Exhibitors gathered an average of NZ$34,918 sales leads at the show and were overall highly satisfied: 83% said it increased their brand or product awareness and 85% said it provided opportunities to network.
“The great advantage for overseas companies exhibiting in New Zealand is their ability to more easily achieve cut-through in a crowded marketplace simply because of their international provenance,” says Dona White, CEO of North Port Events and organiser of Fine Food NZ, which is one of the family of Fine Food shows that includes Fine Food Australia. “Products from outside the local market often appeal to local trade buyers based on their novelty or relative unavailability.”
“As a result, we’ve noticed a big jump in the number of international trade show exhibitors booking stands at Fine Food NZ over the last two shows. We had 11% of exhibitors coming from overseas in 2012 but that figure leapt up to 25% of exhibitors in 2014 – that’s a massive increase of 127%. Now we’re seeing very strong interest in the 2016 show from companies based in Australia and further abroad.”
Things are looking up for the Kiwi hotel industry too, with three luxury hotels being constructed in the Auckland in the next three years (including a NZ$200 million, 5-star hotel in Wynyard Quarter on the waterfront), plus the refurbished Intercontinental opening in Wellington.
“So we expect to see an increasing number of hotel and catering managers at Fine Food NZ looking to buy,” says Ms White.
In fact, the exhibition industry is growing fast worldwide particularly in the B2B sector. The total amount of exhibition space sold in the Asia/Pacific region increased by 9% to 21.6 million square metres between 2008 and 2012, according to UFI, the global exhibition industry association. Overall, widespread investment in expanding venue capacity will push global trade shows revenue to US$39.99 billion by 2019, up from US$31.83 billion in 2014, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Contact Lorraine Smith for more information and to secure your stand, on +64 9 376 4603 or Lorraine@finefoodnz.co.nz.
Visitors register for free at www.finefoodnz.co.nz.