News

Focus Küche & Bad 2005 expanded:
More Space for Kitchen & Bath Innovations

For its fifth staging, Focus Küche & Bad is launching with record bookings: 74 exhibitors from within Germany and abroad, presenting their latest developments for the first time at two venues. In addition to the sell-out at the Enger Exhibition Center, where 57 companies are exhibiting, the organizers Survey Marketing + Consulting (Bielefeld) are for the first time able to promote a supplementary exhibition space covering 1,500 m² in Hall 19 of the new parallel venue in Bad Salzuflen. Here 17 international exhibitors with attractive ideas will be demonstrating their products and expertise. 12,000 trade visitors are expected to attend when the expanded sector showcase opens its doors from September 17-23.

This year again, the ranks of the exhibitors are of the highest quality: companies from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey and have registered for Focus Küche & Bad. The venue will be home to suppliers of extractor hoods, fittings, lighting, cookers, fridges, microwaves, sink systems and washing machines, as well as kitchen and work top manufacturers and associations of service providers to the sector. They offer product and design innovations in terms of built-in kitchens, work tops, sinks, tap fittings, electrical goods, lighting, built-in systems and accessories, right through to kitchen design software.

New Trends from right across Europe

Focus Küche & Bad presents the latest developments in the European kitchen and bathroom market. The growing importance of the kitchen as the focal meeting-point in the home is reflected in the wide range of different design highlights, additional equipment and technical luxuries.

The exhibitors are approaching this autumn's season of trade fairs in buoyant mood. They are set to demonstrate the successful implementation of their design ideas at the Focus Küche & Bad event, with a wealth of innovative new creations for kitchen and bathroom: in the high-end sector, there are complete ranges of domestic equipment with matched styling, whisper-quiet extractor hoods with a nanosurface finish, high-sheen front panels in strong colors, or clever storage solutions in drawer and cabinet systems - right through to the inspired thinking which gives us the fridge with integral drawers. The themes of function, design and luxury have even conquered the difficult challenge of waste separation and collection systems. Furniture fittings, too, are now not only luxurious in terms of their functional characteristics, but are employed in satisfying exacting design requirements.

Hygiene continues to be a major theme in the sector: there are presentations exhibiting anti-bacteria designs in work tops, flush-edge finishes to sink units making them easy to clean, and self-cleaning surfaces for extractor hoods. In terms of sinks, there are solutions featuring new acrylic composite materials, and in work surfaces there are matt and rough surfaces offering the user a completely different feel to working in the kitchen. Built-in kitchen equipment is being offered in new, frameless ranges, and for the first time a series of equipment in titanium is being exhibited. It does not mark with fingerprints, small scratches or high temperatures, and it has a warm and velvety feel to the touch.

Contemporary Living and Cooking Scenarios to suit every Taste

Kitchen manufacturers are continuing to answer their customers' desires for individuality ever more fully: whether with compact machines for space-saving living concepts for the city flat, or with comfortable XXL sink units for generously-sized kitchen/living rooms - whatever the requirement, there is a design to match, with sophisticated details in the design and styling. Island kitchens or inviting breakfast counters, kitchens where safety is the foremost consideration, free-flowing kitchens or multi-media equipment: whatever the need, the answer is to hand.

Angular sink designs, powerful colors and high-sheen surfaces are currently the growth area in the high-quality kitchen segment, with a steadily-increasing market share. Some manufacturers are setting a distinctive tone in moving towards a high-end orientation, for example by completely eliminating foil surfaces from their range of kitchen furniture and employing high-quality materials such as solid wood, lacquer finishes, glass and stainless steel - not least in combinations of materials.

In the solid wood kitchen segment, the current trends are moving in favor of traditional types of wood, and natural color tones with accent colors. Variety is the order of the day here: walnut with the grain featured throughout, or a combination of Indian apple-wood and a high-gloss cream color tone are to be found, as are eco-kitchens in oiled birch with accents in teak.

The sink ranges feature a range of functions and accessories to make working in the kitchen easier, and even the fittings are becoming a high-tech eye-catcher in the kitchen. Manufacturers are offering controls which operate using water pressure, with joystick-type levers and digital key arrays, or designer objects which have won international awards and which, for example, impressively coordinate the interplay of light and water.

Prospects for the Sector

Once again this year, the German Kitchen Manufacturers' Association (Verband der Deutschen Küchenmöbelindustrie (VdDK) has chosen the Focus Küche & Bad exhibition center as the platform for its annual press conference. On September 19, 2005, its President Stefan Waldenmaier will present his view of the economic position of kitchen furniture manufacturers, and of the prospects for the sector going forward. There will be a presentation on the issues surrounding kitchens and waste disposal by Nils Röpke, M.D. at Zentek - Gesellschaft für Kreislaufwirtschaftssysteme in Deutschland (a German company specializing in recycling systems), and on transport packaging by VdDK managing director Dr. Lucas Heumann. He will also be considering the changed legal position with regards to the disposal of old electrical items.

High Level of Visits by Trade Insiders

Following the steady upwards trend of recent years, Survey 2005 estimates that there will again be a further increase in trade visitors. In 2004, some 9,000 experts from businesses, owners of bathroom and kitchen studios, and buyers from purchasing groups and furniture companies from within Germany and abroad came to East-Westphalia to find out about the latest developments and to forge valuable contacts with leading companies in the sector. Visitors came from as far away as the Middle East, Asia, the USA and New Zealand. This year, the expectation is for 12,000 visitors from all around the world. From September 17 through 23, 2005, daily from 9.00 to 18.00, exhibitors and visitors alike are invited once more to discover innovative new worlds for the kitchen and bathroom.

Focus Küche & Bad 2006

Focus Küche & Bad 2006 is being staged from September 16-22, over an expanded venue taking in the Enger Exhibition Center (7,000 m²) and the new Trade Fair Halls 22/23 in Bad Salzuflen (15,000 m²). In Moscow, European center of the construction boom, Focus Küche & Bad is exhibiting from March 9-12, 2006 for the first time in the Gostiny Dvor Trade Fair Center.

Gewerbegebiet Enger-Besenkamp (Trading Area)
Messezentrum Bad Salzuflen, Halle 19
17-23 September, daily from 9.00-18.00

Further information on the internet at www.f-kb.de

For further information, please contact: Anke Wöhler, Public Relations,
PH MEYER Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH & Co.KG, Mittelstr. 50, 33602 Bielefeld,
Tel.: +49 (0) 5 21 - 9 65 33 12, Fax:+49 (0) 5 21 - 9 65 33 77, e-mail: aw@phmeyer.de, Internet: www.f-kb.de