COSMOPROF WORLDWIDE OVERCOMES THE CHALLENGE

The number of visitors at the international beauty fair grows by double digits. The event was held in Bologna last March 8th to the 11th, and the share of internationalization grows as well, rewarding the show’s clear re-focusing on B2B restoration of Cosmopack.

This year, the organizers of the world’s largest beauty fair (BolognaFiere-Sogecos in collaboration with Unipro) had tasked themselves with a particularly challenging objective: sustaining the growth of the event in spite of the troubled economy.
How to go about it? First of all through an energized re-focusing of the show on B2B, thus destining the bulk of the resources and talents to promoting relations between concerns of the sector, without for this reason having to neglect the event’s reach across the entire city.
The redemption numbers document the success of this project. Showroom visitors grew by 14% (193,842 entries), as well as the share of operators from abroad (48,823: +22%), accelerating the process of internationalization that has also affected exhibitors (2390, of which 1500 foreign) and country group exhibitions (24, for the first time including Japan, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Colombia).
And that’s not all. Passing from the general to the specific, for example, a bustle of encounters between exhibitors and foreign delegations: that of Chinese buyers invited by BolognaFiere China in collaboration with the China Commerce Association for General Merchandising (more than 800 department stores, chains, distributors and wholesalers) managed to hold 200 meetings.
Analogously, exhibitors from the most important foreign markets took a leap forward. Thus, in the ranking of countries represented, after Italy, which saw 666 enterprises exhibiting on 38,919 m2, we find China (272 exhibitors on 6,029 m2) and France only third (161 exhibitors on 5,427 m2); worth note, then, is the participation of the USA (143), Germany (125) and Spain (113).

Operation quality:
from the numbers to the culture
Numbers aside, the 46th Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna has also overcome other challenges, less readily expressed in numbers and percentages. One of the more onerous accomplishments had to do with the re-launching of Cosmopack: the “show within the show” dedicated to packaging, machinery and contract manufacturing inaugurated its new location, attracting the attention of a segment of the production chain in which Made in Italy has always played a leading role, showing off all its potential.
Equally burdensome proved promoting the many segments and phenomena that make up the varied beauty market, which Cosmoprof 2013 has managed to make a place for and supply visibility to. That of perfumes, for example, “marked” by the heavy, spiced and sweet fragrances of the 40 Middle Eastern exhibitors, and represented as much by major global brands as by the most dynamic “minor” ones, or that of professional styling which, with its 300 exhibitors covering 20,000 m2, has impressed itself upon operators and the press as an area undergoing exponential growth. An obligatory note should be made, then, of the pavilion dedicated to the 198 exhibitors which have marked their presence at the fair by focusing on eco-sustainability (see the important energy self-sufficiency project regarding L’Oréal Italia’s Settimo Torinese facilities) and, in another area, of the growing attention dedicated by star designers and architects to designing the beauty, spa and styling centers.
Finally, undoubtedly a contribution to adding value to the contents and products was made by the Trend Forums dedicated to focus areas in the market, the large conference on March 8th on macro-economic and sector scenarios (“Market and cosmetics industry: forecasts, studies and research”) and the awards associated with the event, among which the prestigious Accademia del Profumo’s Fragrance Award (see box) and the first Unipro Award, given to the most innovative cosmetics concerns.
The next Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna will be held April 11th to 14th, 2014.