|
BAU 2011 Exhibitor Testimonials
|
Dieter Schäfer, Chairman of the Advisory Board of BAU and CEO of Deutsche
Steinzeug Cremer & Breuer AG: “It was a great BAU. On all the days there
was a tremendously positive mood. We are very happy. When things are so busy on
the stand that you don´t have time to look around, then that´s a good message.
We saw another rise in the quality of the visitors, and we had a large number of
architects coming to our stand. In view of the significant rise in the number of
visitors from abroad, the decision to position BAU as the ‘World´s Leading Trade
Fair’ was absolutely the right one.”
Martin Hörmann, Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of BAU and Director of Hörmann KG: “BAU went superbly. It was a noticeably very international trade audience here, in particular from Asia and Eastern Europe. We made use of BAU once again as a platform for presenting our product innovations.”
Przemyslaw Wojciechowski, Managing Director, Aluprof, Poland: “For us the fair went very well. We were able to do a lot of business and present our new products to an international audience. In two years time we will definitely be back again.”
Dr Jörg Vogelsang, BASF: “For us BAU, as the leading trade fair, again provided us with the expected forum to present our new developments in insulation materials – Neopor, Styrodur C and Elastopur. The subject of energy efficiency combines with the desire to build using sustainable methods. For example, we support the market introduction of the sustainable facade system swissporLAMBDA Vento in Germany. The system is only bolted together and is therefore fully dismantlable, therefore reusable or recyclable. At this year´s fair we noticed in particular a significant rise in the proportion of foreign visitors, in particular from Eastern Europe.”
Thomas Kaczmarek, Managing Director, BetonMarketing Germany: “Our high expectations of BAU 2011, in terms of demand and response to our stand, were more than fulfilled. Added to this is the fact that the quality of the talks we had with visitors was again outstanding. Sustainable building and planning optimisation plus new surface solutions were the focus of trade-visitor interest. The increasing international orientation shows, too, that architects are coming to us from abroad to gather information from outside their own countries. BAU remains for us an important component in communication, because only here can we show all the facets of concrete.”
Maurizio Fiorentino, Head of Sales Porfido Kern, Consortio Cavatori Produttori Porfido, Italy: “For PORFIDO KERN BAU was better than all expectations. Many excellent international contacts, a strong presence from Eastern Europe. We will definitely be back in 2013.”
Gary Dean, Head of Sales & Marketing, C.R. Laurence Of Europe, Ltd., Great Britain: “This is our first visit to BAU and we have been hugely impressed with the visitor numbers and the quality of the show. Without doubt we will be back; the exhibition is the perfect platform to promote our Stuttgart operation. Normally a 6-day event would seem a long haul; it’s Friday already and we can’t wait for the next group of visitors to crowd our stand.”
Anette Brockmann, Head of Trade Fairs and Events, Dorma: “We again took two stands at BAU, and we are very happy with the outcome. On both stands we were able to welcome considerably more visitors than in 2009, in particular from abroad, especially from Asia. All the heads of the subsidiaries from our important export markets were there. In Hall B1 we presented production solutions on our theme areas of hotels, shops and stadiums, and at the stand in Hall C4 the focus was on public and interiors. The main drive in our presentation was on sustainability, so in line with this our stand in B1 featured a green band.”
Martin Möllmann, Director, Dyckerhoff AG: “Since the very first day we have been working at full stretch. We even had to bring in more stand personnel. We talked to visitors from all over Germany, and this time considerably more trade visitors from abroad. There were also more architects present than in 2009. At our stand we showed what you can do with cement and nanotechnology. The architects were very keen to find out more. We ran out of brochures and had to have more printed.”
Hubert Höglauer, Managing Director, Egger, Austria: “Congratulations on this edition of BAU. We are very happy with the result and with the organisation of the fair. BAU has become even more international. It was noticeable that companies – joinery, carpentry and flooring businesses – came along to the fair with a whole team of people. They want to use BAU as a place to upgrade their knowledge and they were very eager to find out about the innovations. In 2011 we are celebrating our 50th anniversary and for the occasion we did a brand new stand design. The centrepiece is a giant set of shelves, which we call the library. It showcased the full spectrum of the material wood.”
Peter Maier, Board Member, Erlus AG: “It was an exceptionally successful fair. From the start the halls were well filled. On Wednesday and Thursday the crowds were particularly large. We had many more international visitors at our stand than two years ago, in particular from England, Ireland and the Arab region. We had two musicians playing on our clay roof tiles and chimney pipes, and this went down very well with the visitors.”
Andrea A. Alber, Partner and Head of Marketing, GEZE GmbH: “BAU 2011 was really great, it reached new heights. The entire trade fair was a success, and we were delighted at the crowds thronging at our stand. We put real innovations on show here, and our customers know that and appreciate it. One subject that is becoming ever more important is universal design. BAU is by far the most important trade fair in Germany, and we plan our work around it. And, it is becoming an ever more important fair worldwide. The proportion of international visitors has risen – and you hear a lot of languages being spoken in the halls.”
Cătălin Horomnea, Managing Director, Glass Expert srl, Romania: “We were able to make many new contacts, and we have high hopes of lots of post-fair business. For us BAU is very important as a place to gauge the mood in the German building industry and to see what is happening in the world of glass. We were particularly impressed with the perfect organisation of the event by the BAU team.”
Michael Vogler, Management Marketing and Communication, Glas Trösch Beratungs-GmbH: “Our presentation at BAU has been even more successful this time than last. We noticed a significant increase – more reports, more contacts, among them many new customers. We have had a noticeably high number of architects and planners at our stand, as well as building developers. The product range we are presenting here is a speciality: We are currently working together with the designer Lars Contzen, who is putting his colours and decors on our glass – at our stand. The colourful, dynamic design seems also to rub off on the mood: the atmosphere is unique.”
Johannes Reischböck, Managing Director, GRAPHISOFT Deutschland GmbH: “For GRAPHISOFT BAU was again a tremendous kick-off event at the start the year! We are extremely satisfied, our expectations were far exceeded. We had an excellent footfall at our stand from highly qualified and very interesting visitors, business at the fair was good, the general mood was positive and we had lots of interesting talks. The more direct link to Hall C3 this time had a very positive effect on visitor flow in the BAU IT area.”
Lijun Huang, President, Hangzhou Jinzhima Industrial Co.,Ltd, China: “This is our first time attending BAU. It is a well organized exhibition and it is well promoted. Visitors are quite professional and we have customers interested in our fingerprint door locks all over the world. We are very satisfied and will definitely come back in 2013.”
Guido Wortmeier, Ppa., Hueck: “The fair got off to a great start, in particular the Monday when the visitor numbers were much increased, especially from the Middle East and Asia. Altogether we had a very good response from customers and trade visitors to Hueck´s new developments. Hueck only exhibits new developments at BAU. In all I can say that our efforts resulted in a very successful experience. It was a challenge, and it was successful!”
Joan Catalin Ilisin, Export Area Manager, Land Porcelanico, Spain: “Our group of companies has been exhibiting at BAU since the 1990s. It is a very good fair. Around 70% of our visitors are architects and that´s precisely why we are here: to make contact with architects.”
Dr Uwe Gruber, Managing Director, MAPEI GmbH: “BAU went very well, right from the first day, the Monday. The response from visitors is outstanding, at times we were virtually overrun. Planners, building tradesmen and all the builders merchants of importance to us were here. The customers really enjoy coming to BAU and are highly motivated – they are looking specifically for new ideas. BAU is a great place for taking orders. You really see that the customers come with an intention to make decisions. The mood for 2011 is noticeably positive, and the order books of the building trades are full for months to come. BAU is a leading trade fair and we give it all we´ve got.”
Clemens Bierig, Managing Director, PCI: “This time BAU did not start quietly. From the first day it was full power. For us it is by far the most important trade fair. This year we are presenting a brand new innovation, the geopolymer joint. It is virtually self-cleaning, and that was quite an eye-opener to many visitors. BAU is an important communicator, and an ideal place for promoting an innovation to a wide audience.”
Ulf Borutzky, Managing Director Ubor, Works Representative from Prodema S.A., Spain: “For us BAU is becoming more and more important when compared to other trade fairs, and it seems to me that it has become even more international. As regards new business contacts, the trade visitors to BAU are exactly the target group that we need. In short: We are entirely satisfied.”
Leijin, Manager, Qingdao Jinhua Industrial Group Co., Ltd, China: “For us, as a Chinese company, BAU provided an attractive exhibition platform. It's our pleasure to communicate with German industry about parking solution development in the future. Many thanks to BAU. We met many customers here and we are looking forward to BAU 2013.”
Jan Van Moerkerke, International Sales Manager, Renson Ventilation NV, Belgium: “As a respected European market leader in the field of natural ventilation and solar protection, we are very pleased to be able to again this year present our aesthetic products and concepts to our existing and new customers. For us BAU is the most important trade fair, it is an outstanding showcase.”
Thomas Lauritzen, Head of Corporate Coordination, Schüco International KG: “That was the most successful BAU we have ever experienced. We were virtually overrun on our stand. And we saw a big rise in the proportion of visitors from abroad, including from outside the EU. For BAU we developed a new open stand concept, on a space of 2,800 square metres. Only here can we implement this kind of design. The message was: Save energy with windows, gain energy with solar, and use both together. That´s how you create buildings that generate more energy than they use.”
Andreas Wilbrand, General Manager, Sopro: “We are very happy. The tremendous surge of visitors we had at our stand, right from day one, took us by surprise. The pressure continued and on Wednesday the visitor numbers reached their peak. We had many visitors at our stand from northern and western Germany, among them large wholesalers with coachloads of builders and tradesmen. Altogether the presence of the building trades at BAU has increased again significantly. That´s good for us, because they are the people we can enthuse for the technology. Also this time it was noticeable that we had many representatives from builders´ merchants at our stand, and they, too, need professional products.”
Jurgen Vandervelden, Managing Director, Soudal, Belgium: “BAU 2011 was one of the best fairs in recent years. A lot of interested, high-profile visitors, with a positive attitude. We acquired a lot of new contacts, both German and international. An excellent platform to show our innovations.”
Dr Reinhard Winkelgrund, Managing Director, Stahl-Informations-Zentrum: “The fair was better than the economic situation in the industry. We have never experienced such a Monday at the fair. The first two days we spoke more English than German, above all with visitors form Eastern Europe, but also from India and China. The interest in steel is fantastic, above all in the area of energy-optimised building. Lots of architects came to visit us, and also assembly and roofing firms who come along to gather information here.”
Ulrich Geisel, Head of Marketing, Sto: “We target our stand concept at BAU to architects, investors and building entrepreneurs and this time, too, we managed to reach these target groups. At our stand here we are presenting high-quality facades made of glass, natural stone and unusual rendered surfaces, and showing our products in the way they look outside. We also had considerably more foreign visitors than two years ago, above all from Iran and also from Russia.”
Michael Wiessner, Director, Saint-Gobain Isover: “We are delighted. The response to our stand is excellent, right from the first day it was continuous talks and contacts all the time. This year the President of the Saint-Gobain Group, Pierre-André de Chalendar, came here for the first time, and he was very impressed with the quality of the stands at BAU. This shows how much this fair has grown in value. Exclusively for BAU we have also developed a brand new stand concept with which we can present our brands to best effect. The only thing I didn´t like was the shift in the opening times. Because you still get caught up in the traffic anyway.”
Ivo Schintz, Managing Director, Tarkett: “It´s running well. We have a higher footfall at our stand than two years ago, even more contacts, above all international. At BAU we reach precisely the target groups we want: architects; home-builders, but also flooring and timber wholesalers. There’s a lot of confidence in the sector, after coming through a crisis, people are now looking forward again. Above all in the outdoor business, for example synthetic lawns, there´s enormous growth.”
Thomas Polonyi, Managing Director, ThyssenKrupp Bausysteme: “Things were buzzing the whole time. I have never experienced here a fireworks display such as we saw on Thursday. BAU is a fantastic forum at which to meet our customers. Only here do we find such an excellent window on the market. Our motto was ‘Steel goes green’. It was about solving environmentally relevant themes for our customers. We were able to welcome our whole spectrum of customers – architects, planners, building firms, owners. But also the processing trades were here – with architects in tow, to look together for solutions for specific projects.”
Astrid Unger, Head of Press and Public Relations, Velux Deutschland GmbH: “We can draw a very positive conclusion from this event. We had good footfall the whole time and engaged in many high-quality conversations with customers. We have customers in all segments – builders´ merchants, retail/wholesale, the building trades, and planners and architects. For the latter we developed inspiring building projects across Europe, under the title of ‘Model Home 2020’ – these were six concept houses of the future. In addition to sustainability, modernisation was a strong theme. BAU was a great start into the new year, the mood among our customers is very upbeat.”
Lothar Riewe, Head of the Munich subsidiary, Viessmann Deutschland GmbH: “In comparison to the last BAU we had a much bigger stand this time. For the next BAU – at which we will most definitely exhibit again – we will probably have to bring in more stand personnel. The rush of visitors and demand was enormous right from the very start. We were also pleasantly impressed with the international spread among the visitors. We made lots of contacts with housing companies, building developers, architects and engineering practices on the one hand, and on the other we also saw more private individuals who are planning to build their own home. All of them came to us for our expertise as a supplier of integrated systems for all types of heating and for information on the important themes of modernisation and energy saving.”
Tim Füldner, Authorised Signatory and Director of Overall Sales and Marketing, Hydro Building Systems GmbH (WICONA): “BAU was very well attended, we are seeing a rise of about 20% on the last event. The quality of the visitors was also right – there were many important metalworking firms, planning offices and architects here – for us a perfect mix. Also the audience in general was much more international in scope, a good third of contacts came from the export markets in which we are active, for example from the Middle East, Turkey and Russia. For us BAU is the main event in the German-speaking region and a top international trade fair.”
Dr Jörg Brinkmann, Head of Marketing and Director of Product Management, Xella and Ben de Sain, Head of Marketing, Fermacell GmbH: “For us BAU 2011 was an excellent start into the new year. We had many more visitors at our stand than in 2009. Even on the first day of the fair, we had lots of quality talks with an interested trade audience. The visitors to our stand were really enthusiastic about our modern, fresh-style stand architecture which showed off beautifully our brands Ytong, Silka and Fermacell.”
Martin Hörmann, Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of BAU and Director of Hörmann KG: “BAU went superbly. It was a noticeably very international trade audience here, in particular from Asia and Eastern Europe. We made use of BAU once again as a platform for presenting our product innovations.”
Przemyslaw Wojciechowski, Managing Director, Aluprof, Poland: “For us the fair went very well. We were able to do a lot of business and present our new products to an international audience. In two years time we will definitely be back again.”
Dr Jörg Vogelsang, BASF: “For us BAU, as the leading trade fair, again provided us with the expected forum to present our new developments in insulation materials – Neopor, Styrodur C and Elastopur. The subject of energy efficiency combines with the desire to build using sustainable methods. For example, we support the market introduction of the sustainable facade system swissporLAMBDA Vento in Germany. The system is only bolted together and is therefore fully dismantlable, therefore reusable or recyclable. At this year´s fair we noticed in particular a significant rise in the proportion of foreign visitors, in particular from Eastern Europe.”
Thomas Kaczmarek, Managing Director, BetonMarketing Germany: “Our high expectations of BAU 2011, in terms of demand and response to our stand, were more than fulfilled. Added to this is the fact that the quality of the talks we had with visitors was again outstanding. Sustainable building and planning optimisation plus new surface solutions were the focus of trade-visitor interest. The increasing international orientation shows, too, that architects are coming to us from abroad to gather information from outside their own countries. BAU remains for us an important component in communication, because only here can we show all the facets of concrete.”
Maurizio Fiorentino, Head of Sales Porfido Kern, Consortio Cavatori Produttori Porfido, Italy: “For PORFIDO KERN BAU was better than all expectations. Many excellent international contacts, a strong presence from Eastern Europe. We will definitely be back in 2013.”
Gary Dean, Head of Sales & Marketing, C.R. Laurence Of Europe, Ltd., Great Britain: “This is our first visit to BAU and we have been hugely impressed with the visitor numbers and the quality of the show. Without doubt we will be back; the exhibition is the perfect platform to promote our Stuttgart operation. Normally a 6-day event would seem a long haul; it’s Friday already and we can’t wait for the next group of visitors to crowd our stand.”
Anette Brockmann, Head of Trade Fairs and Events, Dorma: “We again took two stands at BAU, and we are very happy with the outcome. On both stands we were able to welcome considerably more visitors than in 2009, in particular from abroad, especially from Asia. All the heads of the subsidiaries from our important export markets were there. In Hall B1 we presented production solutions on our theme areas of hotels, shops and stadiums, and at the stand in Hall C4 the focus was on public and interiors. The main drive in our presentation was on sustainability, so in line with this our stand in B1 featured a green band.”
Martin Möllmann, Director, Dyckerhoff AG: “Since the very first day we have been working at full stretch. We even had to bring in more stand personnel. We talked to visitors from all over Germany, and this time considerably more trade visitors from abroad. There were also more architects present than in 2009. At our stand we showed what you can do with cement and nanotechnology. The architects were very keen to find out more. We ran out of brochures and had to have more printed.”
Hubert Höglauer, Managing Director, Egger, Austria: “Congratulations on this edition of BAU. We are very happy with the result and with the organisation of the fair. BAU has become even more international. It was noticeable that companies – joinery, carpentry and flooring businesses – came along to the fair with a whole team of people. They want to use BAU as a place to upgrade their knowledge and they were very eager to find out about the innovations. In 2011 we are celebrating our 50th anniversary and for the occasion we did a brand new stand design. The centrepiece is a giant set of shelves, which we call the library. It showcased the full spectrum of the material wood.”
Peter Maier, Board Member, Erlus AG: “It was an exceptionally successful fair. From the start the halls were well filled. On Wednesday and Thursday the crowds were particularly large. We had many more international visitors at our stand than two years ago, in particular from England, Ireland and the Arab region. We had two musicians playing on our clay roof tiles and chimney pipes, and this went down very well with the visitors.”
Andrea A. Alber, Partner and Head of Marketing, GEZE GmbH: “BAU 2011 was really great, it reached new heights. The entire trade fair was a success, and we were delighted at the crowds thronging at our stand. We put real innovations on show here, and our customers know that and appreciate it. One subject that is becoming ever more important is universal design. BAU is by far the most important trade fair in Germany, and we plan our work around it. And, it is becoming an ever more important fair worldwide. The proportion of international visitors has risen – and you hear a lot of languages being spoken in the halls.”
Cătălin Horomnea, Managing Director, Glass Expert srl, Romania: “We were able to make many new contacts, and we have high hopes of lots of post-fair business. For us BAU is very important as a place to gauge the mood in the German building industry and to see what is happening in the world of glass. We were particularly impressed with the perfect organisation of the event by the BAU team.”
Michael Vogler, Management Marketing and Communication, Glas Trösch Beratungs-GmbH: “Our presentation at BAU has been even more successful this time than last. We noticed a significant increase – more reports, more contacts, among them many new customers. We have had a noticeably high number of architects and planners at our stand, as well as building developers. The product range we are presenting here is a speciality: We are currently working together with the designer Lars Contzen, who is putting his colours and decors on our glass – at our stand. The colourful, dynamic design seems also to rub off on the mood: the atmosphere is unique.”
Johannes Reischböck, Managing Director, GRAPHISOFT Deutschland GmbH: “For GRAPHISOFT BAU was again a tremendous kick-off event at the start the year! We are extremely satisfied, our expectations were far exceeded. We had an excellent footfall at our stand from highly qualified and very interesting visitors, business at the fair was good, the general mood was positive and we had lots of interesting talks. The more direct link to Hall C3 this time had a very positive effect on visitor flow in the BAU IT area.”
Lijun Huang, President, Hangzhou Jinzhima Industrial Co.,Ltd, China: “This is our first time attending BAU. It is a well organized exhibition and it is well promoted. Visitors are quite professional and we have customers interested in our fingerprint door locks all over the world. We are very satisfied and will definitely come back in 2013.”
Guido Wortmeier, Ppa., Hueck: “The fair got off to a great start, in particular the Monday when the visitor numbers were much increased, especially from the Middle East and Asia. Altogether we had a very good response from customers and trade visitors to Hueck´s new developments. Hueck only exhibits new developments at BAU. In all I can say that our efforts resulted in a very successful experience. It was a challenge, and it was successful!”
Joan Catalin Ilisin, Export Area Manager, Land Porcelanico, Spain: “Our group of companies has been exhibiting at BAU since the 1990s. It is a very good fair. Around 70% of our visitors are architects and that´s precisely why we are here: to make contact with architects.”
Dr Uwe Gruber, Managing Director, MAPEI GmbH: “BAU went very well, right from the first day, the Monday. The response from visitors is outstanding, at times we were virtually overrun. Planners, building tradesmen and all the builders merchants of importance to us were here. The customers really enjoy coming to BAU and are highly motivated – they are looking specifically for new ideas. BAU is a great place for taking orders. You really see that the customers come with an intention to make decisions. The mood for 2011 is noticeably positive, and the order books of the building trades are full for months to come. BAU is a leading trade fair and we give it all we´ve got.”
Clemens Bierig, Managing Director, PCI: “This time BAU did not start quietly. From the first day it was full power. For us it is by far the most important trade fair. This year we are presenting a brand new innovation, the geopolymer joint. It is virtually self-cleaning, and that was quite an eye-opener to many visitors. BAU is an important communicator, and an ideal place for promoting an innovation to a wide audience.”
Ulf Borutzky, Managing Director Ubor, Works Representative from Prodema S.A., Spain: “For us BAU is becoming more and more important when compared to other trade fairs, and it seems to me that it has become even more international. As regards new business contacts, the trade visitors to BAU are exactly the target group that we need. In short: We are entirely satisfied.”
Leijin, Manager, Qingdao Jinhua Industrial Group Co., Ltd, China: “For us, as a Chinese company, BAU provided an attractive exhibition platform. It's our pleasure to communicate with German industry about parking solution development in the future. Many thanks to BAU. We met many customers here and we are looking forward to BAU 2013.”
Jan Van Moerkerke, International Sales Manager, Renson Ventilation NV, Belgium: “As a respected European market leader in the field of natural ventilation and solar protection, we are very pleased to be able to again this year present our aesthetic products and concepts to our existing and new customers. For us BAU is the most important trade fair, it is an outstanding showcase.”
Thomas Lauritzen, Head of Corporate Coordination, Schüco International KG: “That was the most successful BAU we have ever experienced. We were virtually overrun on our stand. And we saw a big rise in the proportion of visitors from abroad, including from outside the EU. For BAU we developed a new open stand concept, on a space of 2,800 square metres. Only here can we implement this kind of design. The message was: Save energy with windows, gain energy with solar, and use both together. That´s how you create buildings that generate more energy than they use.”
Andreas Wilbrand, General Manager, Sopro: “We are very happy. The tremendous surge of visitors we had at our stand, right from day one, took us by surprise. The pressure continued and on Wednesday the visitor numbers reached their peak. We had many visitors at our stand from northern and western Germany, among them large wholesalers with coachloads of builders and tradesmen. Altogether the presence of the building trades at BAU has increased again significantly. That´s good for us, because they are the people we can enthuse for the technology. Also this time it was noticeable that we had many representatives from builders´ merchants at our stand, and they, too, need professional products.”
Jurgen Vandervelden, Managing Director, Soudal, Belgium: “BAU 2011 was one of the best fairs in recent years. A lot of interested, high-profile visitors, with a positive attitude. We acquired a lot of new contacts, both German and international. An excellent platform to show our innovations.”
Dr Reinhard Winkelgrund, Managing Director, Stahl-Informations-Zentrum: “The fair was better than the economic situation in the industry. We have never experienced such a Monday at the fair. The first two days we spoke more English than German, above all with visitors form Eastern Europe, but also from India and China. The interest in steel is fantastic, above all in the area of energy-optimised building. Lots of architects came to visit us, and also assembly and roofing firms who come along to gather information here.”
Ulrich Geisel, Head of Marketing, Sto: “We target our stand concept at BAU to architects, investors and building entrepreneurs and this time, too, we managed to reach these target groups. At our stand here we are presenting high-quality facades made of glass, natural stone and unusual rendered surfaces, and showing our products in the way they look outside. We also had considerably more foreign visitors than two years ago, above all from Iran and also from Russia.”
Michael Wiessner, Director, Saint-Gobain Isover: “We are delighted. The response to our stand is excellent, right from the first day it was continuous talks and contacts all the time. This year the President of the Saint-Gobain Group, Pierre-André de Chalendar, came here for the first time, and he was very impressed with the quality of the stands at BAU. This shows how much this fair has grown in value. Exclusively for BAU we have also developed a brand new stand concept with which we can present our brands to best effect. The only thing I didn´t like was the shift in the opening times. Because you still get caught up in the traffic anyway.”
Ivo Schintz, Managing Director, Tarkett: “It´s running well. We have a higher footfall at our stand than two years ago, even more contacts, above all international. At BAU we reach precisely the target groups we want: architects; home-builders, but also flooring and timber wholesalers. There’s a lot of confidence in the sector, after coming through a crisis, people are now looking forward again. Above all in the outdoor business, for example synthetic lawns, there´s enormous growth.”
Thomas Polonyi, Managing Director, ThyssenKrupp Bausysteme: “Things were buzzing the whole time. I have never experienced here a fireworks display such as we saw on Thursday. BAU is a fantastic forum at which to meet our customers. Only here do we find such an excellent window on the market. Our motto was ‘Steel goes green’. It was about solving environmentally relevant themes for our customers. We were able to welcome our whole spectrum of customers – architects, planners, building firms, owners. But also the processing trades were here – with architects in tow, to look together for solutions for specific projects.”
Astrid Unger, Head of Press and Public Relations, Velux Deutschland GmbH: “We can draw a very positive conclusion from this event. We had good footfall the whole time and engaged in many high-quality conversations with customers. We have customers in all segments – builders´ merchants, retail/wholesale, the building trades, and planners and architects. For the latter we developed inspiring building projects across Europe, under the title of ‘Model Home 2020’ – these were six concept houses of the future. In addition to sustainability, modernisation was a strong theme. BAU was a great start into the new year, the mood among our customers is very upbeat.”
Lothar Riewe, Head of the Munich subsidiary, Viessmann Deutschland GmbH: “In comparison to the last BAU we had a much bigger stand this time. For the next BAU – at which we will most definitely exhibit again – we will probably have to bring in more stand personnel. The rush of visitors and demand was enormous right from the very start. We were also pleasantly impressed with the international spread among the visitors. We made lots of contacts with housing companies, building developers, architects and engineering practices on the one hand, and on the other we also saw more private individuals who are planning to build their own home. All of them came to us for our expertise as a supplier of integrated systems for all types of heating and for information on the important themes of modernisation and energy saving.”
Tim Füldner, Authorised Signatory and Director of Overall Sales and Marketing, Hydro Building Systems GmbH (WICONA): “BAU was very well attended, we are seeing a rise of about 20% on the last event. The quality of the visitors was also right – there were many important metalworking firms, planning offices and architects here – for us a perfect mix. Also the audience in general was much more international in scope, a good third of contacts came from the export markets in which we are active, for example from the Middle East, Turkey and Russia. For us BAU is the main event in the German-speaking region and a top international trade fair.”
Dr Jörg Brinkmann, Head of Marketing and Director of Product Management, Xella and Ben de Sain, Head of Marketing, Fermacell GmbH: “For us BAU 2011 was an excellent start into the new year. We had many more visitors at our stand than in 2009. Even on the first day of the fair, we had lots of quality talks with an interested trade audience. The visitors to our stand were really enthusiastic about our modern, fresh-style stand architecture which showed off beautifully our brands Ytong, Silka and Fermacell.”
