Confirms its status as the world’s leading trade show

Today the “Interzum” in Cologne came to an end. The world’s leading trade fair for furniture suppliers and interior design attracted a very good 62,000 trade visitors from around 150 countries and created an excellent atmosphere at the stands and numerous event areas for four days. The 1,600 exhibiting companies had to wait four years to finally come together again at their global industry event. The industry had aligned itself with the “Interzum” with its innovative solutions and product novelties and presented itself in impressive form. “A trade fair can hardly express its importance for its own industry more convincingly,” said a delighted Oliver Frese, Managing Director of Koelnmesse. For him, this success is a clear signal “that strong leading trade fairs like “Interzum” are now more than ever indispensable.”

The importance of the event for the industry was also underlined by the high internationality of the trade audience. The top visitor countries were Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland. Visitor numbers from Turkey were very encouraging, increasing by 16 percent compared to the previous event. More trade visitors also came from India. Visitor numbers from China were also satisfactory in view of the current framework conditions surrounding the issuing of visas. The high professional quality of the trade fair visitors was also emphasized across all countries.

The central theme of the trade fair was sustainability: Under the generic term “neo-ecology”, “Interzum” had already focused on sustainability, climate protection and resource conservation, as well as future-oriented planning in the run-up to the trade fair. The extent to which the trade show had thus struck a chord with the industry was evident from the booths: Almost all companies have recognized the growing importance of ecological aspects for themselves. Points such as resource conservation, smart materials, renewable energies or re- and upcycling played a decisive role for many of the exhibitors’ innovations.

The diverse event program also successfully picked up on these themes. The three Trend Forums, the “Interzum Product Stage” and the “Interzum Trend Stage”, where renowned experts discussed the most important developments, trends and future topics for furniture, materials and furnishings, attracted great interest from the international trade audience.

But not only products, services and events revolved around ecological aspects. Many trade show booths were also planned sustainably and with resource conservation in mind. In addition, “Interzum” has taken responsibility and actively engaged in climate protection itself. In the run-up to the event, “Interzum” had launched an initiative to make the world’s largest industry event for furniture manufacturing and interior design more sustainable in the future. Building on this year’s experience, “Interzum” will further develop the topic of sustainability for upcoming events.

The trade fair in figures: 1,600 companies from 59 countries (2019: 1,806 companies from 61 countries) participated in “Interzum” 2023 on a gross exhibition area of 186,000 m² (2019: 190,000 m²). This included 255 exhibitors from Germany (2019: 356 exhibitors) and 1,345 exhibitors from abroad (2019: 1,450 exhibitors. The foreign share was 84 percent (2019: 80 percent). Including estimates for the last day of the show, some 62,000 trade visitors from about 150 countries attended the show (2019: 74,000 from 152 countries), with about 76 percent (2019: 75 percent) coming from outside Germany.

The next “Interzum” in Cologne will take place from May 20 to 23, 2025.