November 2009

No. 11

GELATISSIMO whets the appetite for something sweet

Craft ice cream production to be the focal point of the special exhibition during INTERGASTRA from 6 to 10 February 2010

INTERGASTRA is further extending its activities relating to “ice cream”. The new special exhibition entitled “GELATISSIMO” will be devoted to this growing segment and will sweeten the trade fair, which is being held for the 25th time in Stuttgart, in Hall 8. Leading market players such as Fabbri, Carpigiani, Mec3 and Frigomat will be directly represented at the premiere of GELATISSIMO. “GELATISSIMO will be staged at exactly the right time for our company”, said Cordula König, Marketing Manager of the Italian raw material manufacturer Gruppo Montebianco. The ultimate aim of the company from the area around Milan is to strengthen its position on the German market with the aid of the new ice cream exhibition. GELATISSIMO will therefore have a broad and solid foundation. It will be complemented in the same hall by the coffee section of INTERGASTRA. After all, ice cream and coffee go very well together. In particular, ice-cream parlour operators and confectioners, but also patissiers from the restaurant industry are eagerly looking forward to the new special exhibition.

Tasty high-quality ice cream

With or without a finance crisis, Germans still have a sweet tooth. Annual per capita consumption of ice cream has remained very stable over the last decade. According to figures from the Association of the German Confectionery Industry, every German consumed between 7.8 and 8.7 litres of ice cream last year. The restaurant industry achieved a turnover of €271.4 million with ice cream in 2008. But best of all: despite stagnating sales, turnover increased in the ice cream segment since the demand for higher-priced premium products rose substantially. This is a plus point for high-quality handmade products.

“We are seeing an enormous increase in the importance of ice cream in Germany“, stated Ulrich Kromer, Managing Director of Messe Stuttgart. He said that there is no compact event for this branch of industry north of the Alps and that this is the reason why GELATISSIMO is unique for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries. “We want to give the ice cream family a new home in Stuttgart.” This is good enough reason for Messe Stuttgart to take account of this growing segment with the “exhibition within INTERGASTRA”.

According to Kromer, GELATISSIMO will fit in very well as a special event for the craft production of ice cream just before the start of the ice cream season.

Other people share this view. Thomas Brück, Managing Director of Eisunion GmbH, Feucht, is also convinced that the date is right for the industry since “this is when innovations are ordered”. Alfred Pfersich GmbH & Co. KG from Neu-Ulm is also excited about February. “We are looking forward to GELATISSIMO and are hoping to find some interesting new customers at the exhibition.”

In addition to raw materials, GELATISSIMO will also feature machines, work equipment, production engineering and accessories or services for the manufacture of ice cream. That’s because technology is a decisive factor in whether a delicious treat can be made from water, milk and/or cream and fruit. Suppliers such as the Lombardian company Frogomat or Carpigiani from Bologna will present technical solutions for both small and large quantities. Alexander Epp, Managing Director of Carpigiani Deutschland GmbH, Filderstadt-Bernhausen, expects that “GELATISSIMO will also be an exciting event for the industry thanks to the good geographical position of the New Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre”.

Great potential for GELATISSIMO

The Italian ice-cream machine manufacturer Frigomat s.r.l. regards GELATISSIMO as “a good opportunity to continue building our name recognition on the German market and forge interesting business contacts”. Ezio Visetti, Managing Director of Frigomat, is delighted that Germany finally has an ice-cream exhibition in addition to trade fairs on the topic of hotels and catering. He says that if the premiere turns out be a success, he could well imagine it becoming the leading event on the ice-cream market. “We no longer attend MIG in Longarone, for example, because the exhibition has very little international character and is not very attractive.”

Exhibitors are looking forward to the first GELATISSIMO in Stuttgart. “As far as the relatives of the second and third generation of foreign ice-cream parlour owners are concerned, Germany has now become the main location for their business life, for logistics and for the implementation of their production processes”, said Mario Annegarn, Managing Director of GEBAS GmbH, Bergheim. He adds that other nationalities have become involved in the ice-cream business besides the traditionally strong Italians. These other nationalities also looked for a marketplace for their needs in Germany. The Italian ice-cream raw material manufacturer Mec3 actually believes that it was born in Germany. “Giordano Emendatori, the founder of our company, worked here for a while as a sales representative”, said Vito Ciniero, Sales Manager of Mec3 Deutschland, who has high expectations of GELATISSIMO. According to Ciniero, Germany is one of the most important markets of all for the company whose German representative is domiciled in Aschheim near Munich. “Although there are good ice-cream exhibitions in Italy, Spain and France, such an event has been lacking to date in the Federal Republic.”

Ice cream also an important topic for confectioners

There is great market potential for the ice-cream segment. In Germany alone, around 6,500 ice-cream cafés sell this cold treat. 5,000 of them make the ice cream themselves. Another 3,2000 confectionery companies also obtain 20 per cent of

their sales with home-made ice cream. Robert Widmann, Honorary Master of the Regional Association of Guilds of Baden-Württemberg Confectioners and its trade fair representative, is convinced that ice cream will also become an increasingly more important for confectioners. “A better taste and the high craftsmanship can turn a well-made ice cream into a unique selling point for the confectioner”, stressed Widmann and therefore welcomes GELATISSIMO as a “marvellous idea for a first-rate topic”.

Information for editorial departments:

For further information, visit: www.intergastra.de; you can find downloadable photos of INTERGASTRA in the Internet at:

http://www.messe-stuttgart.de/cms/intergastra-presse.0.html.

Press spokeswoman: Stephanie Josst | Tel.: +49 (0)711 18560-2251 | Fax -2460 |