In addition to the growth in attendance, a further key factor that contributed towards the satisfaction of the exhibitors was above all the quality of the trade visitors. Here, in an independent exhibitor survey, 67 percent of the exhibitors stated that they were either very satisfied or satisfied. J. Wolfgang Kirchhoff, managing partner and CO of the Kirchhoff Group and Chairman of the Advisory Board, confirmed this impression: "For us the manufacturers, EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair was always and will remain to be the number one industry trade fair. We meet up with our customers here and we get to know new sales partners here. There is no comparable industry platform of such significance in Germany or the neighbouring European countries. Besides innovative products, the focus also always lies on the dialogue between the market partners. One can see how high the need for communication is from the extremely high attendance on the Sunday of the fair." The following feedback came from Rainer Langelüddecke, Managing Director of the Association of German Tool Manufacturers (FWI): "For us EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair is primarily an important contact point. It certainly more than fulfilled this function again this year. We were able to welcome a high number of visitors to our stand, the frequency of visitors was very high. We established new business relations and groomed existing contacts. The feedback from the association members was very positive too." The trade fair received top marks from the trade visitors as well. In an independent trade visitor survey, around 75 percent of the people interviewed stated that overall they were very satisfied or satisfied as far as achieving the goals of their visit was concerned.

At 144,000 square metres, the amount of exhibition space matched the previous year level. Germany was the country that recorded the highest growth in terms of the number of exhibitors. The number of German exhibitors rose significantly by 6.3 percent. In addition to Germany, among the European exhibitors, France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain were strongly represented. The DIY Boulevard that spanned 230 metres through the centre of Hall 2.1 set important impulses. Famous returnee exhibitors to the trade fair such as Abus, Burg-Wächter, Fischer, Hettich, Mellerud, Steinel, Tesa and Westag were among the approx. 40 exhibitors. "In contrast to the previous fairs, this time we had an ongoing rush of visitors at our stand every day. Of course, we put this down to the DIY Boulevard, which was very popular with all parties involved - with both the exhibitors and the buyers - and which had a sort of magnetic attraction", was how Dr. Peter Wüst, Managing Director of Construction, Home Improvement and Garden Trade Association e.V. (BHB), evaluated the new format. He also assessed the reduction of the format of the trade fair positively: "Since attendance was also extremely high on Sunday, this confirmed our estimation that condensing EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair down to three days is the right decision. However, this event is, of course, only one step in the right direction of the expansion and positioning of EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair as the essential trade fair of the home improvement industry!"

The DIY Boulevard was just one of the new formats that Koelnmesse had initiated in the run-up to the 2016 event and which also increased the media attention of both the national and international trade press. Alongside the DIY Boulevard, the E-Commerce Arena by SSI Schäfer also had a crowd-pulling effect on the trade visitors. Here, in the scope of the E-Commerce Theme Day, in cooperation with the IFH Cologne, Koelnmesse presented the brief study "B2B Marketplaces 2016 - what if really comes down to" on the first day of the trade fair. The results of the brief study provided interesting insights on users and their prioritisation, which the suppliers can use as a basis for important recommendations for action. "The mood of both the exhibitors and visitors was positive throughout the fair. Both the key theme of E-Commerce and the DIY Boulevard proved very popular, because here both additional benefits and trends were presented to the trade", is how Thomas Dammann, Executive Director of the Central Association of the Hardware Trade e.V. (ZHH) assessed the formats, whereby at the same time he sees further development potential. "The number of new offers, the many interesting lectures and visiting all the stands made it difficult for some people to fit it all in. So, perhaps one ought to think about repeating some of the interesting lectures on different days of the fair. The many new approaches and ideas have significantly increased the attractiveness of EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair. One should consider further approaches in this direction to further increase the diversity of the exhibitors' offer."

In addition to current industry themes such as E-Commerce for example, many of the exhibitors make use of the international interest and present their concepts, innovations and premieres to the trade audience of EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair. The award ceremony of the EISEN Award 2016 was a guarantee for additional attention. In cooperation with the BHB, Koelnmesse presented the EISEN CSR Award 2016 to GÜNZBURGER STEIGTECHNIK for the best Corporate Social Responsibility concept. The EISEN Innovation Award 2016 that was conferred by Koelnmesse and the ZHH went to the companies August Rüggeberg GmbH & Co. KG - PFERD-Werkzeuge (High Speed Disc ALUMASTER®), HAZET-WERK Hermann Zerver GmbH & Co.KG (VDE torque spanner) and fischer Deutschland Vertriebs GmbH (fischer DUOPOWER).

2,673 companies (2014: 2,783) from 55 countries (2014: 53) took part at EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair in 2016, 86 percent of which (2014: 87) were from abroad.

Including estimates for the last day of the fair, EISENWARENMESSE - International Hardware Fair 2016 attracted around 44,000 trade visitors (2014: 43,879) from 124 (2014: 128) countries, of which around 63 (2014: 63) percent came from abroad.*

* All figures are calculated in accordance with the guidelines of the Association for the Voluntary Control of Trade Fair and Exhibition Statistics (Gesellschaft zur Freiwilligen Kontrolle von Messe- und Seite Ausstellungszahlen, FKM) and are subject to checking by an auditor.