drupa 2008 touts $15.6 billion in sales

-- Converting Magazine, 6/12/2008

Print media fair drupa 2008 closed yesterday in Dusseldorf, Germany, with a range of impressive numbers, including a reported €10 billion ($15.6 billion) in sales on the show floor, says organizer Messe Dusseldorf. 

The 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries unanimously reported an extremely high number of promising contacts and successful purchase deals. "drupa 2008 has sent out a clear signal: due to numerous innovations and new fields of business, the print media sector is more agile than ever," says Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann, drupa president and CEO of pressmaker Koenig & Bauer AG. "This is clearly reflected in the numerous deals concluded with virtually all key business regions." 

Around 391,000 visitors from 138 countries attended. Accounting for 59% of the visitor total, international visitor participation increased by 4% compared to drupa 2004. "Given the difficult economic climate this is a remarkable success. Fortunately, we were able to increase the proportion of overseas visitors to 43%", adds Werner M. Dornscheidt, president/CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. Particularly contributing to this growth were Asian and Latin American trade visitors with 7% coming from South and Central America and 15% from Asia (2004: 13.6%). 

At a surprising level of 6%, the proportion of North American visitors remained constant. “We had anticipated slight decreases not only because of the high level of the Euro,” comments Dornscheidt. 

“But these figures also clearly show: drupa is top worldwide and nothing moves in the print and media industry without it!”

On the exhibitor side, 64% of the companies came from countries other than Germany, with Italy (191 exhibitors), China (139), Great Britain (135) and the U.S. (105) as the leading foreign exhibitor nations. The U.S. exhibitor figure includes 27 companies displaying their products within the successful U.S. Pavilion, organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America (MDNA) and co-sponsored by NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies.

Planning way ahead? The dates for the next drupa are May 3-16, 2012.