LivingInteriors makes a debut at this year’s imm cologne

One of the world’s largest furnishings fair, imm cologne concluded last month with record crowds. Along with a new segment, LivingInteriors, the week-long fair saw 1,157 companies from 54 countries showcase interior design trends for the coming year.

Including estimates for the last day of the show, the trade fair drew 115,000 visitors to Cologne. “Cologne is the key business platform for the global furniture economy – as this trade fair has once again impressively demonstrated,” sums up Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse. “This year we were bang on course. We had more exhibitors, were more international – the Italian contingent was stronger than it had been for a long time – and visitors got to see lots of genuinely new products. All in all, a result like this means we are again playing at the very top of the furniture sector’s premier league.”

imm cologne is the central meeting place for exhibitors and decision-makers from all the world’s important markets.

From international basics in living room and bedroom furniture to young lifestyles and the self-assembly segment, mattresses and sleeping systems, upholstered furniture, modern living-room, bathroom and solid wood furniture, furniture for kids and sophisticated interior design concepts, all the way to the premium and high-end segment – all of it will were on show in Cologne.

For the first time, the extensive range of products covered by the “biggest furniture store in the world” was extended further with suppliers from the bathroom, flooring, wall coverings and lighting segments who exhibited at the new parallel event LivingInteriors.

A total of 115,000 visitors came to the metropolis on the Rhine – 14 percent more than at the last comparable event in 2010. With foreign visitors accounting for 42 percent (based on the trade visitor days), the imm cologne was once again a very international trade fair. The fair had far more buyers from Europe, especially from the Russian Federation and Italy, and a slight increase in the number of visitors from North America and Asia. The Public Days were also very well attended, with around 40,000 consumers attending the event.