Ambiente 2017: Global market for Vietnamese brands

Ambiente is an international trade fair for products for the table, kitchen and household, gift articles, jewelry and fashion requisites, as well as decorative products, interior design concepts and furnishing accessories. Ambiente is ‘The Show’ for the entire sector and, thanks to its unique horizontal and vertical range of products, unrivalled worldwide.

For five days in early 2017, 4,454 exhibitors showed their new products and innovations for the coming season to 142,000 trade visitors from 154 countries. Compared to 2016, 68 more companies made presentations at this year’s Ambiente.

Covering an area 26 times bigger than London’s Trafalgar Square (308,000sq.m of gross exhibition space), Ambiente were the focal point of the international consumer-goods sector. Emphasizing this, Detlef Braun, member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, said, “Multilateral trade relations provide prosperity and stability for millions of people all around the world, and this calls for intensive interaction. For this, Ambiente – the show for a global sector – provides the ideal basis. It stands for first-class contacts and is the driving force for international trade.”

More than half of all visitors – 55 percent – came to Frankfurt from outside Germany. Moreover, the percentage of international exhibitors reached the record level of 80 percent. “Also particularly impressive is the increase of almost four percent in the number of visitors, which was split equally between German and international visitors. At Ambiente, representatives of the trade from all over the world expand their networks of contacts and place orders”, added Detlef Braun. Top German and international decision makers were also better represented than in 2016, and this ensured good export business and a positive atmosphere in the halls. The top ten visitor nations after Germany were Italy, China, France, the US, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Turkey. Over 3,000 visitors came to Frankfurt from the UK, this year’s Ambiente Partner Country, an increase of around 200 over last year. There was also above-average growth in the number of visitors from Vietnam, China, the US, Canada, Australia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Parallel to this, there was a significant upsurge in the number of visitors from Germany. Ambiente is the professional venue for numerous German retail outlets where they order large parts of their assortment. At the fair, brands launch their latest products, designer trends are ignited, decision makers and key communicators meet.

The world’s leading consumer-goods fair is also distinguished by a wide variety of events, promotional programs, trend presentations and awards ceremonies. Notably, at Ambiente 2017, The Ethical Style Guide provided information for trade visitors on sustainable and ethically produced consumer goods. Using categories such as ‘eco-friendly materials’, ‘fair and social production’, ‘re/up-cycling design’, and ‘handmade manufacturing’ the guide offers orientation in a highly complex global product segment and helps people find their way easily around the stands of exhibitors whose production is conducted in line with ethical and/or sustainable principles.

This year, Ambiente was underscored by an unchanged high level of satisfaction revealed by the visitor poll: 95 percent said they were satisfied with the fair.

Impressions from Vietnamese companies

This year, Ambiente 2017 attracted 60 Vietnamese companies. These companies have participated in the fair several years, such as: Minh Long I Co., Ltd; Green Living Co., Ltd; Thien Thuong Co., Ltd; Lacquer World Co., Ltd, Artex Saigon Import Export Joint Stock Company; Bac Ninh Manufacture Co., Ltd; Duc Thanh Wood Processing Joint Stock Company; Doan Potters Co., Ltd; Decor Viet Joint Stock Company; Haca Co., Ltd; Viet Garden Co., Ltd; Hanoi Design Center; Artex Thang Long; Ceramic; Hong Ha; Ngoc Minh, and Maico Co., Ltd.

At the fair, Vietnamese companies impressed international visitors with featured and nice products, good quality. Their booths attracted many buyers from around the world.

Vuong Dinh Sac, Director of the Thien Thuong Co., Ltd, which has participated in the show several years, said that, compared to others, Ambiente offers more advantages, and his company got more orders from the fair.

Duong Thi Thanh Thuy, President, Lacquerworld Co., Ltd said that the company’s products were loved at the fair, and buyers from many countries around the world came to her booth to learn more about products.

Nguyen Thi Bich Huyen from the Board of Directors at Viet Garden Co., Ltd, said that she saw more buyers at Ambiente, and the fair brought satisfied results.

Made-in-Vietnam products have been noted at Ambiente during many years of joining the fair. Hopefully, Vietnamese brands will continue to be strengthened and further promoted at the fair next year.

Ambiente 2018 will take place from February 9-13. Following Denmark, France, Japan, the US, Italy and the UK, the Netherlands will be the seventh Partner Country of the world’s leading consumer-goods fair.