Istanbul hosts second successful Fastener Fair Turkey
16 January 2015
Exhibitors and visitors reported a fruitful second edition of Fastener Fair Turkey, held once again at the IFM – Istanbul Expo Centre from the 20th – 21st November 2014, with a total of 1,700 managers, engineers and buyers visiting the show.
The mix of visitors reflected the diversity of markets served by the fastener and fixing industry. Organisers – Mack Brooks Fuarcılık AŞ – reported that half of visitors were either wholesalers (25%) or distributors (25%). Around 21% were end-users, with fastener and fixing manufacturers accounting for the remaining 29% of those attending. 25% of the visitors were from outside turkey – representing 47 countries.
The industry sectors most strongly represented were automotive, construction, mechanical engineering, electrical products/domestic appliances, civil engineering, agricultural/off highway machinery, and furniture manufacturing.
The organisers also pointed out that visitor quality was noteworthy, with managing directors or board members accounting for 29% of those attending. Department heads and senior managers totalled 15% of attendees, while a further 15% were engineers and technicians.
130 exhibitors took part in Fastener Fair Turkey, filling the venue’s Hall 11. Among foreign nations strongly represented were Germany, Italy, France, Spain, China and Taiwan, while companies from Croatia, Denmark, India, Norway, the UK and the USA also took part. While 45% of exhibitors were foreign companies representing 12 countries, participation by Turkish firms increased compared to the 2013 show. The Turkish stands dominated the front of the hall, with several large, high presentational stands underlining the capabilities of Turkish manufacturers.
One of the most impressive stands was Berdan Civata – a manufacturer of bolts, nuts, anchor bolts and studbolts. Davut Dolgun, customer relations manager at Berdan Civata, commented: “We had a very successful show. It was our second time at Fastener Fair Turkey and this year’s show was definitely better than the previous edition. We were able to meet with a lot of new potential customers and had visitors from across Europe, as well as neighbouring countries to Turkey.”
Tobias Grobe, from first time exhibitor HEICO Befestigungstechnik GmbH, also reported a successful show. “It was the first time we exhibited at Fastener Fair Turkey and we received lots of Turkish and international customers to our stand – who were able to review our product range and efficiency. New product lines at the show included the HEICO-LOCK® Ring Lock Washers and the HEICO-LOCK® Wedge Lock Nut.”
Lee Procter, marketing manager at Lancaster Fastener Co Ltd, was happy with the quality of the visitors to the show, but disappointed with the number of visitors.“Overall the quality of visitors was good and 60% of recorded visitors were from companies that are ‘new’ to Lancaster. During the show we welcomed visitors from 15 countries over the two day period mainly from Eastern Europe but also from as far afield as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran. 60% of visitors were as expected from Turkey.”
“The major disappointment was the volume of traffic not only to our stand but throughout the exhibition. The second day was particularly quiet and up to a point, deserted in the afternoon. However, having followed up on a number of meetings over the last few days, we have generated numerous enquiries and have ‘spread the word’ to a number of fastener distributors that we were unaware of prior to the exhibition.”
He added: “In summary, geographically we were happy with the diversity of visitors to the exhibition and have perhaps met potential customers that would not make the trip to Stuttgart. It’s just a shame that there weren’t more of them.”
HEROSLAM SAL – a manufacturer of thread rolling tools – presented its latest products at the show as it looked to increase and consolidate its business in Turkey. The company presented innovations such as the GG coating, made in-house, which significantly improves threading quality and tool service life for the most demanding threading applications, as well as the recently obtained TRILOBULAR® line of licensed tools.
For its second successful participation at Fastener Fair Turkey, RIVELIT, belonging to Titanox, took the opportunity to show its full range of blind fasteners including speed rivets, speed installation tools, blind rivets, structural high strength rivets, bolting systems and blind threaded nuts.
“Alongside many Turkish visitors, our visitors came from all over the world. They were attracted by our broad range of riveting fasteners and our speed installation technology. Speed technology is a unique automated feeding system aimed to reduce setting time, operator fatigue and to increase productivity with an initial low cost investment,” commented Anaït Kuntz, communication manager at Titanox.
Commenting on the success of the event, Olivia Griscelli, exhibition director at organisers Mack Brooks Fuarcılık AŞ, said: “We were especially pleased to receive very favourable feedback from exhibitors on the quality of visitors to this show. It was also good to see such strong international participation. This strengthens our belief in the many opportunities in the Turkish market for the fastener and fixing industry. With Istanbul such a dynamic business centre at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and the Middle East, it is the ideal host city for Fastener Fair Turkey.”
More stand space in 2016
Having adopted a pattern to return every two years, the third show in the series will take place on 13th – 14th April 2016. The venue will again be the IFM – Istanbul Expo Centre and there has already been very strong demand for stand space. Following the success of last year’s show, some 60 companies have confirmed their participation in Fastener Fair Turkey 2016, with around 1,600m² already booked. In response, this next exhibition will occupy two halls – Halls 9 and 10 at the IFM – to provide additional stand space.
