Remains ‘mother’ of aftermarket trade fairs
The automotive aftermarket plays a dominant role in the overall growth of auto component manufacturers across the globe. Though the share from original equipment gives volume of business for any auto component manufacturer, the profitability for the manufacturer is mostly driven by aftermarket business activities. Hence the aftermarket business has to be the thrust area attracting optimum investment. The importance of growing aftermarket activities across the globe has been emphasised with the thumping success of the recently-held Automechanika Frankfurt fair. Popularly known as the mother of events for aftermarket shows, this year’s Automechanika surpassed all its previous records.
The central theme at this year’s event was ‘Tomorrow’s Service & Mobility’. A record 4,820 exhibitors from 76 countries took part in it, including leading players from industry, workshops and retail, and they offered an impressive demonstration of the ways in which the industry is changing as connected cars come to the fore.
Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt GmbH, said: “With these impressive figures, Automechanika is continuing to build on its position as the world’s leading platform for the automotive aftermarket. In addition to countless impressive smart vehicles that are already connected, the struggle for data was one of the hottest topics of discussion at the trade fair.”
As a result, Messe Frankfurt launched a new format, “Connected Mobility”, an international road show that began on September 15 and which will soon be making stops in Shanghai and in Austin, Texas. One of the keynote speakers was Jeep hacker Chris Valasek, who is now the Security Lead at the Uber Advanced Technology Center. In his presentation, he stressed the importance of software security in connected cars.
Visitor satisfaction for the event was 95 per cent. More than 80 per cent of exhibitors were able to reach their visitor target groups. They were very happy with their trade fair participation overall. Both visitors and exhibitors, especially those from Germany, were extremely upbeat about the economic climate within the sector.
Dr. Uwe Thomas, President of the Automotive Aftermarket Division at Bosch GmbH, offered his take on the Repair & Maintenance sector: “The aftermarket and workshops are on the brink of a new era – for workshops, connected mobility is the wave of the future. As a result, the themes of networking, digitalisation and augmented reality were in particular demand at our stand this year. Automechanika is our platform of choice for showcasing the latest trends and technologies, as well as for demonstrating how Bosch can make workshop operations more efficient for the future.”
Numerous exhibitors reported that the quality of their talks with nearly 136,000 visitors (2014: 137,982) was even better this year. Dr. Ulrich Walz, Market Director – ZF Services, fully agrees: “We are extremely satisfied, and both the visitors and our talks with them were of a very high quality on every day of the event. I am especially pleased that from the third day on, we enjoyed a particularly positive response from workshop owners and mechanics from Germany.”
Other exhibitors were happy about their contacts outside Germany. Said Rafael Tomás, CEO of Istobal: “There is no doubt that Automechanika is the best platform for establishing business contacts that extend beyond Europe. As at the previous event, the international share of visitors was almost 60 per cent.
Tiemo Sehon, Managing Director of SEHON Innovative Lackieranlagen GmbH: “As manufacturers of painting systems and paint-spraying booths, we are currently focusing on optimising the overall efficiency and energy consumption of our products. At Automechanika, we were able to reach our current customers and to establish many new contacts as well, especially in South Korea.”
With more than 1,000 people taking part, the ‘Schadentalk’ (damage talk) drew more visitors than any other event at Automechanika Academy. This noteworthy industry event saw leading representatives from the accident damage sector discuss the topic of invoices being reduced by independent inspection services for loss assessments, automotive services and claim control.
Among those taking part in the discussion were ZKF President Peter Börner, Gerhard Witte (ControlExpert), Stefan Artz (Allianz Insurance / Service Partner Network) and Thomas Geck (HUK-COBURG), as well as other representatives from the Innovation Group, Global Automotive Service, German Association of Partner Workshops (BVdP) and paint manufacturers Axalta Coating Systems.
For the first time, renowned industry suppliers exhibited products and solutions for process optimisation as part of the special showcase ‘Schadenstrasse’ (collision street).
By R. Balasubramanian, Editorial Team