The furniture year 2010 gets off to a dynamic start

The imm cologne ended on Sunday, 24th January 2010 with a positive closing balance. Despite being shortened by a day, the fair managed to equal the previous year’s result with around 100,000 visitors. The number of exhibitors even slightly exceeded last year’s level. From Koelnmesse’s perspective, the high expectations of the imm cologne as one of the most important fairs for the international furniture and interior design sector have thus been met.

- The exhibitors have used their innovativeness to brave the crisis and been rewarded by doing good business, says
Koelnmesse’s CEO Gerald Böse.

As announced last Friday, Koelnmesse and the VDM as non-material sponsor of the imm cologne have extended their contract long-term to continue their collaboration beyond the scope of the imm cologne 2010.

The conditions under which the imm cologne 2010 took place could hardly have been better. The number of exhibitors grew by around one percent to 1,053 companies, with a seven percent increase in the number of domestic firms taking part. Foreign companies accounted for 58 percent of exhibitors, the providers came from 51 countries. This pleasing result is also reflected in the number of visitors. In contrast to last year, the number of trade visitors from abroad increased again (+ 5.7 percent). The show reported particularly pleasing figures for North America (+ 23 percent) and Eastern Europe (+ 18 percent), two regions of vital importance for the export trade.

- This year’s imm cologne exuded a sense of optimism. The customers were in a cheerful, relaxed mood. And the
fair itself is on a very good course – starting with the compactly planned and very full Hall 11, the great new pure village format for smaller providers, all the way to the new opening times from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” concludes Leo Lübke, CEO of interlübke and COR Sitzmöbel.

The kitchen returns to Cologne in 2011
Parallel to the imm cologne, the cathedral city will be playing host to the LivingKitchen® fair for the first time next year. The international kitchen trade fair will take place as an independent event every two years. It will have three
public days and aims to bring together renowned national and international exhibitors from the entire kitchen industry.

Trends at this year's fair

Some of the trends that could be seen at this year's fair are:

· The megacolour white for upholstery fabrics and storage furniture surfaces, with e.g. aubergine shades for dignified accentuation. New additions this year: covering fabrics in matt black and blue.
· Large-format dining tables and dining room armchairs you can sit on comfortably for a long time.
· Adjustable upholstered furniture with lots of additional functions
· Dark wood, preferably combined with glass and stainless steel
· LED lighting technology in cabinets and shelving units
· The “kitchen – dining room – living area” as a spatial unit, now joined by private spa oases in which the bedroom and bathroom merge into a single unit.