Ferroforma-Bricoforma 2007, Europe's hardware and d-i-y main event of the year

Ferroforma-Bricoforma 2007 is to take place in March.

The four-day event at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre will offer a comprehensive, balanced, international outlook in which industrial supplies, power tools, machinery and household products will share centre stage. 1208 exhibitors from 28 countries on 927 stands have already confirmed their presence, accrediting this as the main event of its kind in Europe for 2007.

A UNIQUE RANGE OF PRODUCTS
Hardware, industrial supplies and D-I-Y (which for the second time will have its own sub-event in Bricoforma) will occupy all six exhibition halls at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre in this seventeenth edition of Ferroforma.

As things currently stand, the sectors that will take up the biggest shares of the event are hand tools (26%), supplies for industry and construction (24%), hardware and household products (9%), locksmithery (9%), fittings (6%), electrical machinery (5%), occupational protection (4%) and decoration (3%). Other sectors represented include commercial equipment firms, gardening, electricity and lighting, woodworking and home organisation, bathrooms, plumbing and climate control.

The sectoral breakdown of the event and its high profile abroad draw manufacturers, agents, distributors, retailers, trend-setters and users to Ferroforma year after year to see the latest new products on the international market at first hand .

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH OF 39%
Ferroforma's sound international position is reinforced still further this year by its strategic placement on the calendar of events in its field. The registration of 675 foreign firms from 27 countries, 437 of them on their own stands, evidences the event's reputation as Europe's top meeting point in odd years. The number of foreign participants is already up by 39% this year, with two months still to go before the event opens.

Once again, Europe is to provide the largest numbers of foreign participants, with Germany, Italy, France and Portugal leading the field, though China, directly through firms and though Provincial Councils for the Promotion of Trade, and Taiwan will also be well represented. In response to actions designed specifically to promote the event abroad and support the presence of small and medium sized firms, groups of British, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and US firms will also be taking part in Ferroforma-Bricoforma 2007. This means that the event will provide a highly effective platform for promotion for companies interested in creating, developing or extending programmes of internationalisation.

CAMPAIGN TO BRING IN VISITORS
FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
The campaign to draw visitors to Ferroforma-Bricoforma 2007 is going strong at home and abroad. On the domestic front, actions have been reinforced through specialist agents in all regions of Spain, covering practically the whole of the country.

At the same time a programme has been launched to attract delegations from all over the world, in co-ordination with SPRI (Association for the Promotion and Restructuring of Industry), commercial offices, distributors and agents of exhibitors. This campaign is aimed mainly at trade specialists belonging mainly to hardware firms, D-I-Y centres, multiples, distributors and central purchasing units. In 2004, participants from 34 countries were attracted.

The support and presence at the event of numerous sectoral associations such as ANCOFE (National Association of Hardware Co-operatives), FERGRUP (Central Hardware Purchasing Group), ASIDE (Spanish Association of Industrial Suppliers) and ASEPAL (Association of Personal Protection Equipment Firms), along with the Taiwanese and German associations of hand tool manufacturers, the French, British and US D-I-Y associations and the Indian Institute for the Promotion of Trade are guarantees to bring in specialists in their respective areas of activity.

Finally, FERROFORMA-BRICOFORMA 2007 will be promoted in the latter stages of the run-up to the event in both the general and economic press, in specialist journals, on TV and on billboards.