Two Horse Race

Vinexpo is often criticised for its French focus, while some dismiss LIWSF as a New World wine fair. But both events have their own devoted followers and compelling reasons for being there, says Penny Boothman

IF YOU’VE survived both LIWSF and Vinexpo, then congratulations are in order. For the next few months at least it’s back to business as usual before deciding which, if any, of the international wine shows to attend next year.

Fair-going is, of course, a time consuming and costly business, but the conspicuous lack of generic support from some quarters at the recent Bordeaux extravaganza begs the question, why go? The UK wine industry grinds to a halt for a few days each May and many European and international offices are empty for a week every other June, but is it worth it?

“All exhibitions are expensive,” says Janet Burns of Accent Communications, responsible for Vinexpo’s promotion. “The cost of the stand, the transport, accommodation, taking people off the road, the amount of new brochures and everything that you have to produce – it’s pretty expensive. Does Vinexpo give value for money? I think it does. It’s the spread of visitors from all over the world. If you’re aiming at a broad international market then they’re there, and you get to see decision makers and opinion formers – the top guys are there and I don’t think they travel to all exhibitions. Apart from everything else, it’s a bigger show, so there are economies of scale at play.”

And this year these economies of scale seem to have paid off. Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, is delighted with the way the fair went: “The show was very successful. In the weeks before everybody in the world spoke about problems, about less visitors, bad sales and so on, but in the end we had more visitors than two years ago by 5%, and for the first time one visitor in three is non-French, which is extraordinary.”

All wine shows now have such an impressive menu of seminars, events and tastings for visitors to choose from that it would actually be possible to avoid the show floor altogether if you so wished, but this would leave precious little time for achieving any actual work.

“What drives the London Wine Fair is business – that’s our raison d’etre,” says James Murray, director of the LIWSF. “The exhibitors are there to make serious business contacts and increase their profits, and the same principle applies for the visitors.” But the real challenge for any exhibition is qualifying the return on your investment. “We’re actually working with our exhibitors at the moment to find out how they do that – if they do that – and what value of business is generated through the fair,” says Murray.

The London show has been getting a reputation as the New World wine show, but Murray is quick to point out that that’s not all it has to offer. “If you look at the international pavilions that we have, the top four in size are all Old World,” he points out. “France is the largest, then Spain, Italy, and Portugal. It’s pretty much 50/50 overall, and for a lot of the international buyers it’s really important that they have this balanced overview that we provide, whereas at Vinexpo France dominates and at Prowein Germany dominates.”

There may have been murmurings of discontent about Glastonbury-esque toilet facilities and having to pay € 20 for a catalogue at a certain French venue, but this year’s more efficient air-conditioning, and the ever more elaborate stands attended by the great and the good of the international wine industry show that the biennial Bordeaux event still has a lot of pull with the wine world.

Equally, the industry may finally be warming to the new(ish) East End venue of the LIWSF but while the cool, spacious surroundings may be blissful, there are still transport issues with the ever unpopular Docklands Light Railway and a few grumbles about not being in central London.

Both shows undoubtedly have a lot to offer. If you have the opportunity – and the marketing budget – to be there, this is where many companies set up the majority of their annual business.

In a Vinexpo year, many companies and visitors don’t have the money or the energy to attend both fairs, but whichever you choose, the success of your investment will be a direct result of your own preparation. db

INDUSTRY analysts Wine Intellligence interviewed 138 exhibitors two weeks after the LIWSF. Some 75% of the exhibitors interviewed said that they do measure whether they have succeeded in the goals they had set for the show; 46% said that they had achieved these goals; 11% thought they had not; and 43% were unsure. The highest scoring reasons for exhibiting were “To win new business”, “To network with prospective customers” and “To increase awareness of products and services”. As a result of these findings, Brintex is setting up exhibitor workshops to identify practical and workable evaluation techniques for the 2006 show.

STAND HIRE costs at Vinexpo range from € 235 per square metre for a small stand with one open side; € 255/sq m for a corner stand; € 270/sq m for a larger stand; and € 290/sq m for an island of 96-400 sq m; as well as exhibitor participation fees of € 390 per “direct exhibitor” (parent company) and € 520 per subsidiary exhibitor, or € 740 per indirect exhibitor participation. Brintex charges two rates for the LIWSF show. The “space rate” for 2006 stands at £252 per square metre and the “shell scheme” (stands built for the smaller exhibitors including power, shelving and counter unit) are £299 per square metre. The standard package also includes other benefits such as glasses and cleaning.

INSIDER OPINION

“Each of the shows has its own special focus and merits. Both are utterly useless if you merely rent space and hope to have someone stumble on you. As a rule, I would want to alternate between the two shows – one year London, one year Bordeaux. Clearly, Vinexpo is the bigger event – and doubtless the setting helps! Being entertained in a château takes some beating.

The LIWSF is very important for brands active in the UK and draws a large New World contingent, whereas Vinexpo is more classically focused albeit with a New World presence. Vinexpo has a much broader reach with a large American and Canadian contingent, as well as drawing serious merchants from the whole of Europe and the East. While I enjoy the luxury of alternating, if I had to choose just one it would have to be…Vinexpo.

By and large the critical issue is quite simply, if your appointment diary is not well filled a month before the show you are probably wasting your time.”
Ken Forrester, sales director Ken Forrester Wines

”Trade fairs for wine have become too many and it is becoming more and more difficult to know which ones to attend.

The main downfall of trade fairs is that they usually offer poor conditions for tasting wines.

Regional trade fairs tend to have, for us, better results than trade fairs like Vinexpo where too many things are happening in not so well organised a way: big traffic jams, poor quality accomodation, poor restaurant service.

International wine buyers and producers need to be treated the right way when then attend a wine trade show. A good wine buyer, like a good wine producer, pays a lot of attention to details, and we expect the same thing from the wine trade fair organisers. For these reasons I will place Vinisud, LIWSF and VinItaly as my favourite trade fairs. Prowein seems to be a more and more interesting and well organised trade fair too, but as yet I do not have enough feedback.

Finally, conventions like Cannes and Vinicom have given us very good results because of their set appointment schedules.”
Jean-Claude Mas, Paul Mas