Ambiente 2020: Bringing the Consumer Goods Industry to a New Level

The world’s largest consumer goods trade fair took place from 7 to 11 February 2020 in Frankfurt. Ambiente, a place where the future becomes the present, with a focus on international business and trends, covered 310,240 sq.m. and has grown to 4,635 exhibitors from 93 countries. Buyers from approximately 160 countries, in total 108,000 visitors, most of whom came from countries outside Germany, had plenty of things to see, people to meet and inspiration to get. The exceptionally ordered environment conditioned mutually beneficial deals.

Despite the huge challenges that Ambiente faced this year due to Storm Ciara in the region and the fear of travelling because of the coronavirus, in all, a large number of orders were placed and even the visitor number growth was evident from such countries as Japan, Estonia, Turkey, Romania, Jordan and Colombia. The top ten visiting nations were Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, UK, Turkey, US, Russia, Japan and China.

Ambiente traditionally covers three areas: Dining, Living and Giving. From this year onwards, the dining area has been expanded to include its HORECA hall, adding a separate platform for the hotel, restaurant and catering industry. The 2020 HORECA hall 6.0 was a unique place for national and international decision-makers in the hospitality industry. Exhibitors presented their latest collections and innovative services. Also, top international speakers delivered speeches and shared their experience in the industry at the Horeca Academy, where attendees had the opportunity to listen to product presentations, interact, and learn more about the future opportunities and trends in the hospitality segment. The top speakers at the Horeca Academy included a mix of celebrities, from hospitality designers to chefs and restaurateurs, among whom Jozef Youssef’s masterclass about multisensory gastronomy was one of the most impressive and informative. Youssef is a top chef and TED Talks speaker, who founded “Kitchen Theory” in 2010, a design studio and multi-award-winning “Chef’s Table” in London. He uses his findings, about how people’s five senses change their feedback with dishes, how their senses detect light, color, scents and a wide variety of consistencies, for his scientific research.

More than 400 companies presented their products and services in Horeca Hall and each of them were talking how the fair exceeded their expectations. They were all happy with the quality of visitors and a large number of relevant customers from around the globe.

“Measuring the success of this trade fair, we can clearly give it 10 out of 10,” said Mayda Pérez, Executive Vice President of ‘Front of the House’. “We’re a new exhibitor, a US company founded in 2002 with a clear focus on HoReCa channels of distribution, and we produce and design all our products ourselves. Ambiente’s clear focus on front-of-house business has greatly helped us to have a successful trade fair, so that we can grow both smartly and sustainably. Our expectations of the new HoReCa hall were more than exceeded. It really was a magnificent show for us”.

The Ambiente team always takes really good and creative care of the companies celebrating their anniversaries at the fair, and this year was no exception, making a surprise visit at their stands and handing them a special anniversary cake with their company theme. Eight exhibitors celebrated their corporate anniversaries with the Ambiente team this year, including Royal Crown Derby - 270 years, Spode Portmeirion - 250 years, and others.

“Sometimes it’s good to take time and look back in pride at the things you’ve achieved. So we’re very pleased that several of our exhibitors with anniversaries are celebrating at Ambiente this year. It’s an opportunity for us to say thank you,” says Nicolette Naumann, Vice President of Ambiente.

Ambiente also provided a new special presentation Focus on Design Brazil. A panel discussion with Mark Kwami was very interesting in terms of Brazil’s new trends, and experiences were shared by the young designers. During the panel they spoke about the latest tendencies and the challenges in the modern world. Brazilian furniture designer Rodrigo Almeida spoke about the trendy functional objects they design, which need to have something to communicate.

“When you design on paper, it gives the object a soul; when you do a design on computer, yes it is beautiful, amazing but still it misses something,” Kwami said.

Speakers also spoke about the challenges they face related to the growth of online market. “People don’t want to go out anymore and prefer to buy everything online, so we need to be adapted to the digital world”. The positive side of the field in Brazil, according to the designers, is that manufacturers are no longer scared of designers and they have started understanding that the partnership is very important between them, otherwise there will be no innovation. They also mentioned that design education is becoming more and more popular among the new generation.

Ambiente invites journalists and bloggers from around the world annually and the dedicated tours make for a great experience for both parties – journalists and exhibitors and so are worth mentioning separately. Prof. Mark Braun’s design tour was focused on the topic “what’s behind the curtain when relevance meets beauty”. During the guided tour, journalists had the chance to meet German young entrepreneurs, graduates, who are very much supported by the Messe. Sophie Stanitzek was one of them, who created a new biodegradable material that gives nutrition to the earth. Jonna Breitenhuber’s major topic in her work is reducing plastic and she presented packaging that can be used as soap after use as a container. Anna Badur, a gradute from Berlin working with ceramics, is driven by natural movement. The ornaments on her works are not specially painted but are colored during the process, therefore the resulting patterns are fully open to interpretation. Be they like the sea, wind or mountains.

Another guided designers’ tour by Ineke Hans into the dining area included several topics, such as: “Bigger brands and the new highstreet”. Streetfood and eating on the move was not so much of an issue 20 years ago. Cities change, shops are found online and physical shops turn into coffee bars, barber shops, nail studios and other places that sell what you simply cannot buy online. Another topic introduced by the guide was a combination of truly new and a true tradition, for example, Melitta, a brand making coffee filters and machines; Bornn enamelware from Turkey; Heim&Sohne spoons of all shapes and color made of acrylics, for products that you cannot touch with metal, such as caviar.

During the fair, one of the most interesting events and presentations was held by the Ambiente’s long-standing co-operative ventures with the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) and MADE51, a project of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This development was also reflected in the Ethical Style Guide, a curated directory that lists environmentally and socially responsible manufacturers exhibiting at Ambiente. WFTO and MADE51 are the major organizations working on social mission, establishing women’s role and engaging refugees in a working process and active life. “All the products that women design have personal stories,” says the managing partner of Gone Rural, Swaziland, member of WFTO. During the panel on sustainability with MADE51/UNHCR, Kara Hook from social enterprise “women craft” answered the question ‘Why do they do it?’ with the woman refugee’s face on the presentation monitor holding her work in her hands and smiling – “Look at that lady’s face, that’s why!” she said.

The next Ambiente will take place from 19 to 23 February 2021.

For further information please contact:

Zaira Soloeva, Senior Project Manager, Official Representative of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH in Georgia and Armenia,

Deutsche Wirtschaftsvereinigung (DWV).

Zaira.soloeva@dwv.ge

Or visit the following website: www.dwv.ge

By Sopho Bochoidze

Photo: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Pietro Sutera, Jean-Luc Valentin