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SINGAPORE, Apr 11, 2014 - (ACN Newswire) - Food&HotelAsia2014 (FHA2014), Asia's largest and much-anticipated mega biennial food and hospitality tradeshow, closed today on a high. Attendees to the show had an exhilarating week closing deals, forging new partnerships, making new business contacts and learning about the latest trends in the industry. The trade event, co-located with Wine&SpiritsAsia2014 (WSA2014) at the Singapore Expo, also echoed the sentiments at FHA.
Said Mr Stephen Tan, Chief Executive of Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), "We are pleased to see the show flourishing over the years, and is now a renowned platform that brings tremendous value to our exhibitors and visitors. With the show growing with each edition, our team will continuously innovate in order to meet with rising and evolving expectations from all participants."
Organised by SES, the event showcased an impressive spread which ranged from the finest and most unique food ingredients and products, food service equipment and technology, hotel amenities, hospitality technology to wines and liquors from a mix of old and new regions.
The 19th edition of the show started off by setting new records. Spanning an immense area of 102,000sqm, it was the first event to fully occupy Singapore's biggest exhibition venue. The show had 3,213 exhibitors, the largest assembly to date, and 63 group pavilions. It attracted 64,826 attendees, 43.1 per cent of them from overseas. This astronomical congregation included trade visitors, exhibiting staff, conference speakers and delegates, and judges and competitors.
- Deals struck on the show floor with many more still under negotiation
Exhibitors in the Singapore Pavilion are very pleased, said Mr Sunny Koh, Chairman of the Membership & Industry Groups Function Committee of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), which co-ordinated the pavilion jointly with International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and hosted 142 buyers from all over the world.
"The event was very successful for the exhibitors. They met good buyers, especially the hosted buyers, and this translated into sales," he added. Encouraged by the result, SMF has booked a space of 1,500sqm for FHA2016 - a 24 per cent increase from this year.
German company SYS Systemfiltration, the producers of the Vito Oil Filter System and oil tester reported that it had closed a deal worth EU 100,000 with an Australian company, and another worth EU 33,000 with a Singapore seafood chain. A EU 70,000 deal with a China company is pending.
"We have sold more than 100 units in the first three days of the exhibition, an average of 30 per day," said Mr Michael Theiss, sales director of SYS Systemfiltration, a third-time exhibitor at FHA. "People are now not looking for basic technology but innovation and a touch of green for their business. So they come to us. FHA is the most important event in Asia for our company. It has helped us to touch base with our potential buyers and to meet our partners from all over Asia."
Keng Sheng Engineering sold two process cookers for S$450,000 and S$325,000 respectively yesterday (April 10). Earlier, within minutes of the official opening of the show, Dutch hotel room products manufacturer Bentley Europe concluded a deal with Tritunggal Adyabuana, an Indonesian hotel and restaurant supplies company, for 1,000 Sirocco hair dryers.
Malaysian exhibitor Unox (Asia), which supplies Unox Italian ovens and took part in FHA for the third time, said it was "selling out almost everything". "FHA2014 has exceeded our expectations," said its regional manager, Ms Kuah Soo Shang. "We have customers who want to do upfront cash payments. The price range is approximately between S$1,000 - S$15,000 per transaction. We have a lot of Singapore buyers."
- Quality buyers from Asia-Pacific
There were many positive remarks over quality buyers at the show and exhibitors wanting to come back for FHA2016.
Said Mr Christopher Rees, Senior Trade Commissioner of the Australian Trade Commission, representing exhibitors at the Australian Pavilion, "We had a good mixture of Australian companies which have an established presence in the market and companies that are trying to break into the market."
"They are happy with the show. The established companies had a chance to meet their distributors while the others met good visitors from many countries including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. They were serious buyers, who knew what they want. Clearly, the show has a regional presence which many exhibitors are happy about," he added.
- The sentiment about quality buyers at the show was also shared by others.
Mr Gregory Chantereau, export manager of Clovis Wines, a first-time exhibitor at WSA2014, said, "We came to the show to look for new importers to develop our range and network. We met about 15 good buyers from the region each day. We have selected two distributors, one from Singapore and the other from Malaysia."
Ms Mimi Murphy, Vice-President of Scheidigger Trading Company from the United States, said the show was "very good". "It is an opportunity to meet our many customers from Southeast Asia and show them our latest products. At the same time, we meet new buyers. We met about 60 buyers here. It would be great if we get about 10 new customers from among them."
Mr Tan said, "We welcome these positive sentiments from the trade. We will endeavour to continue to raise the level of the show, and to bring quality buyers with strong purchasing power."
- Satisfied visitors were all praises for the tradeshow
Franco Ho Swee Fook, Honorary-advisor and Life Member of the Chef Association of Malaysia sourced for inspirations for his kitchen at the show with his entourage of younger chefs to learn about different equipment available in the market. "FHA has always been professionally organised, with a wide variety of new kitchen technologies available. The show offers a great learning experience for all. I will definitely encourage my colleagues to come to FHA2016," said Ho.
A regular visitor to FHA, Chris Glaessel, Managing Director of CIR | VIS (Food & Beverage | Hospitality Consulting) visits the show to be kept updated with the new products and technologies available in the marketplace. "FHA has proved to be an effective platform to reconnect with industry professionals from around the world. The various competitions held alongside also added excitement to the exhibition."
"This is the third time I am visiting FHA because it gives me the opportunity to meet existing suppliers, and source for new ones. FHA has a fine selection of food and beverage supplies, and that makes coming down to this show very worthwhile," said Deza P. Onesa, Category Manager of Puregold Duty Free, Inc., who notices that the show is bigger compared to previous years.
- FHA International Conference a platform of knowledge sharing
The exhibition was accompanied by an International Conference with speakers focusing on key topics and issues faced by the F&B and hospitality industries, including new ways to deal with the manpower shortage, managing hotel operations and revenue optimisation strategies; managing F&B operations and food concepts; and latest technologies for the hotel and F&B sectors.
Delegates were pleased with the selection of topics and speakers. HJH Rohani Bte HK AWG Salleh, Restaurants Service Manager of Orchid Garden Hotel enjoyed all the seminars and workshops. "All the sessions are extremely useful. The speakers are very experienced and could deliver in details how to develop and improve our business. I hope that FHA international conference will not only be held in Singapore but also in other ASEAN country."
"Being in the hotel industry for several years has taught me that constant update and innovation is the only way to be sustainable in the market. This conference has given me the insights and trends that I am looking for. Good line-up of topics and speakers. Keep up the good work!" said Libby Federico, Director of Sales and Marketing of The Pearl Manila Hotel.
- Renowned competitions for the culinary profession
There were world-class competitions, such as the FHA Culinary Challenge (FCC) which saw more than 800 chefs from all over the world battle in the Individual Challenge, Dream Team Challenge and Gourmet Team Challenge. The National Team Challenge held every four years, also returned to the FCC this year. In addition, there were the Asian Pastry Cup held in conjunction with Bakery&Pastry, the FHA Barista Challenge and first-ever FHA Latte Art Challenge. The RIPE-WSA Cocktail Challenge and the WSA Wine Challenge were also held alongside the event.
FHA2016 and WSA2016 will return to Singapore Expo on 12 - 15 April 2016.
Contact:
Elaine Sng
PR Manager
Singapore Exhibition Services
Tel:+65 6233 6632, +65 9746 9902
Email: elaine.sng@sesallworld.com
Patricia Yee
PR Executive
Singapore Exhibition Services
Tel: +65 6233 6637, +65 9382 7452
Email: patricia.yee@sesallworld.com
Topic: Trade Show or Conference
Source: Food&HotelAsia
http://www.acnnewswire.com
From the Asia Corporate News Network
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