China Brew & China Beverage (CBB) has just completed another chapter in its successful history. On the four days of the show, 52,063 participants came to Beijing - that´s slightly up on the numbers that attended the last event two years ago. Feedback from the visitors was positive across the board, with particular praise given to the professional organization of the event and the quality of the visitors. In 2016 CBB will not be held in Beijing, but in Shanghai.
A total of 708 (2012: 674) exhibitors from 25 countries (2012: 21) took part in CBB 2014, which was held on approximately 80,000 square meters of exhibition space. 248 of the exhibitors came from outside China. It is especially pleasing to report that this year there has been a further improvement in the quality of the sections at the exhibition and that there were considerably more products and equipment on show at the booths of the exhibitors. The visitors came not only from the beer and soft drinks industries, but also increasingly from the milk industry and from distilleries - a fact that further underpins China Brew & China Beverage´s reputation as the leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry in Southeast Asia.
The organizer of CBB is the China National United Equipment Group Co., Ltd. Messe München International, the organizer of drinktec, the leading world fair, and its Chinese subsidiary MMI Shanghai have been co-organizers of CBB since 2011. They are responsible for the international exhibitors and for visitor acquisition in a number of Asian countries.
Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Deputy CEO of Messe München International, was satisfied with the outcome of this year´s fair: "The four days of the fair have shown once more that the beverages industry in China is rapidly gaining significance. Together with our Chinese partners we have succeeded in once again raising standards, above all in terms of visitor quality." In view of the ever increasing number of visitors from the Southeast Asia region, Dr. Pfeiffer sees the move from Beijing to Shanghai as a logical consequence: "Now is the right time. With this move we expect to be able to reach out even more effectively to the beverage industry in China and Southeast Asia."
Richard Clemens, Managing Director of the conceptual sponsor of CBB, the German Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association (Fachverband Nahrungsmittelmaschinen und Verpackungsmaschinen) affiliated in the VDMA (Germany´s engineering federation), stated: "CBB has further strengthened its position as the leading trade fair for brewing and beverages technology in Asia. With the involvement of Messe München, there has been a significant rise in the quality of the organization and implementation of the show. And the stepping up of visitor acquisition measures has also been reflected in the pleasingly high number of visitors. The move to Shanghai will give further strong impetus to CBB."
The success of the event was also reflected in the positive feedback received from the international exhibitors at the show:
Martin Hammerschmid, Managing Director of GERNEP GmbH, believes CBB will become an even more international event with the move to Shanghai: "CBB 2014 in Beijing is already the most important platform for beverages technology and the no. 1 sector gathering for the Asian region. Thanks to the excellent organization of the event, we have all achieved our goals, namely, meeting existing customers, finding new customers and generating new business. We are very much looking forward to the next CBB in Shanghai."
Schneider Electric (China) Co., Ltd. took part in CBB for the first time this year. "The result has already surpassed our expectations," explained Xiaoke He, Food & Beverage and Life Science, Schneider Global Solutions Segment Director. "We met both old friends and new partners here. Some of them are our long-term international partners, some are important players in China with whom we had a few partnerships. Through CBB 2014, we have strengthened our contact. They spoke highly of our solutions and expressed their interest in further cooperation. We believe in the near future we will have more communication."
"CBB 2014 has helped us to demonstrate our leading measurement instrumentation for the local and global filler manufacturers," explained Ryan Kromhout, Global Industry Division Manager Food, KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH. "We have seen a definite increase in the quality of the discussions with booth visitors, as well as the quantity of visitors. At CBB 2016 KROHNE will additionally focus on the various process measurement solutions and is looking forward to exhibiting."
Volker Kronseder, Board Chairman of Krones AG, was particularly impressed with the good organization of CBB: "We would like to say that the event China Brew & China Beverage is an important component in our KRONES trade-fair calendar and we are already looking forward to the next event in this quality in Shanghai. We thank all those involved for looking after us and for the successful implementation of this project.
Another exhibitor convinced that CBB will continue to expand is Shulin Xie, General Manager, Quinko (FuJian) Machinery Industrial Co., LTD.: "CBB is a very good show. We notice that it has grown even bigger this year and the exhibition has extended to a wider range, practically covering the entire spectrum of the brewery and beverage industry. This is marvelous. I hope CBB will continue to grow and attract more Chinese as well as overseas customers such as those from Southeast Asia. We will always support and exhibit at CBB."
Frank Hollmann, Executive Vice President, Market Zone Asia/Pacific, KHS GmbH, is particularly happy with the high quality of the visitors to CBB: "The show was a great success for us. We were able to do a lot of new business and win new customers."
A similar comment came from Olaf Mueller, Vice President, Food and Beverage, Pentair Filtration & Process: "I think CBB is excellent. We are extremely happy with the outcome of the exhibition, especially for the first two days. A lot of decision-makers from local Chinese enterprises and expanding international groups visited our booth. And we also met some visitors from Southeast Asia. So we have customers here and they are middle managers and technical people, as well as commercial decision-makers. I would say CBB really has very high-quality visitors."
Baoqing Wang, Operation Deputy General Manager, MIC - Tech (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., believes the high quality of the visitors also has much to do with the presence of high-caliber exhibitors: "We are exhibiting at CBB for the first time and we think the visitor quality is very good. We have met many important overseas customers and their senior managers such as Krones, Sidel, Master Kong, President and Coca Cola. In regard to the exhibitors, all the big names are here.
Dieter Biszwurm, Sales Director, Kieselmann GmbH, sees CBB as a promising platform in one of the biggest markets in the world, and important for the future: "Very many of our customers and potentials visited us at our booth. This is no doubt the result of the more mature structure and continuous expansion of this show. From our customers we heard that this show is becoming ever more important and as a result ever more important for the Chinese beverages market. We hope that Messe München will continue to actively pursue the further expansion of CBB and already we are looking forward to 2016."
The benefits of taking part in China Brew & China Beverage were underlined by Christian Hilber, Head of Business Unit Brewing, at the first-time exhibitor Bühler AG: "Bühler exhibited at China Brew & China Beverage for the first time this year, and with great success. The main aim was to further develop relations with existing customers, and to make new contacts. The new leads we gained here will definitely help us to further penetrate the Chinese brewing and distillery market."
The next China Brew & China Beverage takes place from October 11 to 14, 2016 at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre (SNIEC).
