The International Trade Fair for Distribution, Materials Handling and Information Flow LOGIMAT has always been an important event for the logistics industry in Europe. For this year’s fifth edition of the event, held from February 13 to 15, nearly 500 exhibitors representing a wide spectrum of intralogistics solutions arrived in Stuttgart. The enormous interest in the event should come as no surprise, as this market segment in Germany is considered one of the key industries in our western neighbors’ national economy. A concrete example of the industry’s boom is the latest statistical data, which LOGIMAT trade fair director Peter Kazander pointed out during the press conference. Turnover in this sector in 2006 increased by as much as 8.3% compared to 2005. Germany is also a leader in the export of intralogistics products – this success is shared by 800 manufacturing companies employing 92,000 people. The highest growth dynamics are recorded by manufacturers of shelving, stacker cranes, and forklifts.
In Stuttgart, exhibitors from Europe, Asia, and the USA presented the latest technologies, products, and systems designed to improve logistics processes in the warehouse. Visitors showed great interest in the booths of companies presenting applications of pick to light, pick by voice, and RFID technologies.
During the gala dinner ending the first day of the fair, the “Best Product” awards ceremony took place. As in previous years, awards were presented in 3 categories. In the “Software, Communications, IT” category, the award went to Dematic GmbH & Co. KG. The winner of the award in the “Procurement, Internal Transport, Storage” category was Indumont AG. In the “Picking and Packing” category, a jury composed of logistics press editors, university representatives, and companies distinguished the solution from SAVOYE GmbH.
Poland marked its presence at the LOGIMAT fair, among other things, through the active participation of the editorial staff of the “Logistyka” magazine in one of the 15 conferences accompanying the event. It was “Logistyka” that the organizers entrusted with the substantive preparation and moderation of the forum titled “Logistics centers in Central and Eastern European countries,” with the participation of CEOs of logistics companies from Poland and Germany. The conference was attended by representatives of METROPLAN EASTERN EUROPE GMBH, GOLDBECK GMBH, and SSI Schäfer Sp. z o.o. The goal of the conference was to show the dynamics of the warehouse space market in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Many positive statements regarding the development of logistics in our country were also made at the conference titled “Expansion of production in Central and Eastern Europe.” Representatives of companies such as Wabco and Atlas Copco, which decided to launch operations in Poland, shared their positive experiences of working with Polish partners.
The next edition of the LOGIMAT trade fair will take place from February 19 to 21, 2008, in the most modern exhibition center in Europe, currently under construction near the Stuttgart airport.
An extensive report from the LOGIMAT fair will appear in the next issue of LOGISTYKA magazine.
For the readers of our portal, we have prepared a photo report from this event.