B&B Barcelona exceeds expectations

Last week's winter edition of Bread&Butter in Barcelona has proved to be a great success. The three-day fashion trade fair registered 82,837 visits. Last season the amount registered was 53,774. The organisation had initially expected at least 60.000 visitors. The registered amount represents the amount of times people were admitted to the trade fair. "This means that people returning for a second or third visit were registered as first time visitors," said Danielle De Bie, communications director of Bread&Butter. "It is impossible to find out exactly how many individual visitors there were because admittance was free." Nevertheless, the success of the event is undeniable. Karl-Heinz Müller: "After the latest developments we had expected an increase indeed but the final figures exceeded all expectations, we are very happy."

Visitors' numbers from North European countries increased particularly. "We are very happy that many German retailers and buyers came to Barcelona , numbers nearly doubled compared to the fall/winter season 2006." The majority visitors came from Spain , Portugal and Italy .

According to the organisation, the success of the event was partly due to AGM (Active Guest Management). This branch of Bread&Butter was launched to assist international visitors in their mother tongue, both in the run up to and during the trade show. The initiative has already provoked numerous positive responses. "Many exhibitors have used AGM actively and visitors were grateful and happy about the personal support," said Müller .

The next Bread&Butter Barcelona will take place from 4 to 6 July. "We feel at ease in Barcelona ," Müller concluded. "The Catalan capital is the perfect place for our trade show, which will be continuously developed. But this will not keep us from developing and realising new and successful concepts in other locations." A prime example of one of these new concepts is the BBBatKraftwerk, which will open its doors on 26 January in Berlin.