PaintExpo 2024 Review

PaintExpo once again attracted many visitors to the Karlsruhe Exhibition Center from April 9 to 12, 2024. During the world's leading trade fair for industrial painting technology, 431 exhibitors from 25 countries presented innovations, technologies and solutions to 10,400 trade visitors from 76 countries.

A very large number of visitors, a great, work-intensive atmosphere in the three exhibition halls as well as a large number of qualified technical discussions and new customer contacts - the ninth edition of PaintExpo from April 9 to 12, 2024 was a complete success. As part of the world's leading trade fair for industrial painting technology in Karlsruhe, 431 exhibitors from 25 countries showcased new, pioneering technologies for the sustainable and energy-efficient painting processes of the future on an exhibition area of 31,500 square meters. 10,400 trade visitors were on site. The number of countries from which visitors came increased from 57 to 76 compared to the previous edition of the trade fair. This year's PaintExpo was more international than ever before: the proportion of international exhibitors was 45 percent and more than one in three visitors traveled from abroad. Exhibitors and visitors alike were very satisfied with the trade fair.

PaintExpo has once again impressed exhibitors and visitors as the world's most important international industry platform for industrial coating technology. "We're very pleased about the large number of visitors, which has once again increased significantly in comparison to the previous trade fair edition. PaintExpo proved to be powerful and innovative - and more international than ever before. The heart of industrial painting technology beat here for four days. This underscores PaintExpo's position as the world's most important source of inspiration for the industry", says Markus Geisenberger, Managing Director of Leipziger Messe.

As the world's leading trade fair for industrial coating technology, PaintExpo showcased the entire range of international products and services for industrial coating technology along the entire value chain. The spectrum ranged from pre-treatment to paints, plant and application technology to final inspection and packaging. The focus was on many world premieres, technological developments for more sustainable and energy-efficient painting processes, pragmatic solutions for increasing quality and the digitalization of production processes. The exhibitors were very positive about the trade fair. In the official survey, 94 percent of exhibitors stated that they would exhibit again at the next edition of the trade fair. Nine out of ten respondents expect good follow-up business.

Michael Müller, CEO of Wagner International, for example, was very satisfied with the world's leading trade fair for industrial coating technology: "Our stand was very busy from the very first minute of the event. Half of the visitors we welcomed came from abroad. From Argentina to Japan - there were guests from all over the world. This is particularly important for us as a globally active group of companies."

Oliver Zanner, Head of Marketing at FreiLacke, also praised this year's trade fair: "Even before PaintExpo started, we could clearly sense the great interest shown by visitors. It had a completely different, intense dynamic than at the previous trade fair. We were able to exchange ideas with a large number of visitors and hold very high-quality discussions. As a system coating specialist and manufacturer, we meet our customers from a wide range of industries at PaintExpo. PaintExpo is the most important industry get-together for us."

The general conditions for the industry are currently challenging, but the atmosphere during the four days of PaintExpo exuded optimism. "The past year presented our industry with considerable challenges! Numerous projects had to be postponed or scrapped altogether. Since the middle of the first quarter of 2024, however, there have been signs of recovery and investments in sustainable technologies and innovative automation solutions are noticeably picking up speed again. I was also able to see this positive development at PaintExpo. A large number of interested parties and existing customers came to find out about the latest developments in this area. I am convinced that numerous fascinating projects and state-of-the-art systems will emerge from these discussions and I am looking forward to the rest of the year. We are already looking forward to the next PaintExpo and are determined to take part again", explains Thomas Rippert, Managing Director at Rippert.

Visitors also gave PaintExpo very high marks: In the survey, nine out of ten respondents stated that they would recommend PaintExpo to others and visit the next edition of the trade fair again. The number of top decision-makers and specialists and executives was also very high. 83 percent of visitors have a significant influence on investment decisions in their companies.

Sergey Guskov, Sales and Service Manager Central and North Europe Industrial Coating Systems at Nordson Germany, emphasizes: "PaintExpo offers excellent opportunities to make new contacts and initiate business. Networking is very important here. Participating in the trade fair was very successful for us. We're very happy to be back at PaintExpo."

PaintExpo also had a lot to offer in terms of international visitors: More than every third guest traveled from abroad. In addition to Germany, visitors came in particular from Switzerland, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Ulrich Tautz, Senior Manager Sales Industrial Products at Dürr Systems, was also pleased that PaintExpo 2024 attracted a large number of international visitors: "We had an employee with 25 years of trade fair experience with us - and he said that he had never experienced such a strong day as the second day of PaintExpo. My colleagues from different countries regularly exchanged ideas with the visitors during the trade fair in their respective national languages. This illustrates just how international PaintExpo is."

"There was a great, hard-working atmosphere in the three exhibition halls and a wide variety of languages could be heard. This makes it clear that suppliers and users from all over the world come together in one place. At PaintExpo, groundbreaking innovations were presented, new business contacts were made and concrete projects were discussed in order to shape the future of the industry. The success of PaintExpo 2024 confirms that we're on the right track together with our partners," reports Project Director Mariella Riedel.

The next edition of PaintExpo will take place in Karlsruhe from April 14 to 17, 2026. Rebooking has already begun and the first stand spaces for PaintExpo 2026 have already been allocated. (OM-4/24)