The 27th Reifen Show in Essen, Germany, was the best yet with 19,000 trade visitors in attendance, according to show organizers Messe Essen.

While the company announced that it had the largest number of exhibitors in the event’s history, and the strongest international participation. The increased footfall was confirmed at the end of the event, and talk of tire labeling and the new products linked to this legislation dominated the trade fair.

Visitors are said to have travelled from 130 countries across all continents to attend the show. Over a third of the visitors ordered something at the fair and concluded deals in the show booths. Some 88% of visitors were described as “decision takers” with purchasing and procurement powers in their companies.

The 653 exhibitors from 44 nations, including all the renowned tire manufacturers, showed that they were very satisfied with the 2012 event.Messe Essen boss, Frank Thorwirth commented: "The course of Reifen has impressively shown that nothing can replace the personal contact, the face-to-face conversation, even in times which are becoming economically difficult."

Only the fair offers these intensive possibilities of networking, getting to know each other and the direct exchange of opinions. "Furthermore, Reifen was yet again a family reunion in the sector," according to the chairman and CEO of Messe Essen.

With the date for the next Reifen show already released (the 28th International Reifen trade fair will run from May 27-30, 2014), 93% of exhibitors have suggested they have “firm intentions” to visit the event in two years time. In the meantime the fifth "Reifen China" is scheduled for (Nov. 22-24, 2012).

Michael Borchert, managing director for marketing and sales for Pirelli Deutschland GmbH, stated: "No question: ‘Reifen’ in Essen has become established as the world’s premier fair in the tire sector. For everybody who has to deal with tires professionally, it is a must, every two years, to be involved in this international highlight. Thus, the fair helped us to hold a lot of good and important discussions with our national and international customers.

“On the other hand, the fair was particularly important this year because it took place at nearly the same time as the introduction of the EU tire label,” he said. “Against this background, Pirelli is proud of the fact that, with the Cinturato P7 Blue, its program includes a tire which exhibits the best mark A in selected sizes in the label categories relating to rolling resistance and wet grip and will already be available on the market as from July."

Dieter Köppner, Nokian Tyre managing director for Central Europe, commented: "We are very satisfied with the overall course of the fair. Reifen is definitely the most important tire fair in the world. Here, we meet our customers from all over the world. Moreover, our appointments were all booked-up. The booth was always well visited, although we were remarkably the only tire manufacturer at the fair without any tires on the booth.

“Nevertheless, there was always brisk business here because experts are familiar with us as a reliable partner,” he said. “Our winter tires traditionally register a strong demand but our summer range on offer also aroused great interest at the fair. All in all, it was primarily the rise in the number of international visitors, which was remarkable. Next time, we will certainly be involved again."

Nexen Tire Europe’s Ji Ahn, added: "For us, Reifen was an entirely successful event. We felt that we were looked after ideally but we were pleased, above all, about the numerous visitors from throughout the world. Here, we were able to establish very good contacts, for example, to Eastern European, African and Arab customers. All in all, our booth was well visited around the clock four days’ long.”

Harald Van Ooteghem, senior manager for business planning and marketing, Bridgestone Europe, said: "We are very satisfied and cannot make any complaints whatsoever. We have achieved what we wanted to achieve. On all the days of the fair, we had a remarkable on-rush of visitors and were able to meet clients from all over the world in this case. Especially our tire innovations were very much in demand. We will be involved in the next Reifen once more." (Tyres & Accessories)