Drupa will open its doors in little more than five months’ time, with organisers hoping for a full house in terms of both exhibitors and visitors. However, the disruption caused by Covid, which led to the cancellation of the 2020 event, may have broken the exhibition habit for many.
Certainly industry consolidation has tempered some expectations: organisers are said to have a target of 200,000 visitors for Drupa this year, compared to 260,000 for the 2016 event. At that time the Dusseldorf Messe was attracting 1.3 million visitors a year on average. In 2022 it drew 707,755 visitors in total. The target therefore would still mean Drupa being responsible for one fifth to one quarter of exhibition attendances for the year and pushing millions of euros into the local economy. Exhibitions in 2022 were calculated to feed €795 million into hotels, restaurants, bars and travel that year and generating €30.1 million in tax revenues to the city authorities.
According to the current hall layout, there will be more Chinese exhibitors among the 1,300 participating companies than ever before, with 60% of the space and 24% of exhibitors coming from the country. It makes Drupa the largest Asian printing show in the world. To underline the tilt eastwards, the show is expected to attract 20,000 Indian visitors, logistics permitting, compared to 13,000 eight years ago.
While HP has retained its sole occupancy of Hall 17, Heidelberg no longer dominates Hall 1 as it used to. This is a new Hall 1, having been rebuilt in recent years and covering a larger area. For 2024, Muller Martini, Kolbus, Meccanotecnica and Masterwork will share the space. As with every other Hall it seems, there will be a Chinese presence alongside more established exhibitors.
Thus Landa is in Hall 9 (the next hall earmarked for a €140 million modernisation) along with SwissQPrint and Zund, and Bobst dominates Hall 10. Kodak returns to Hall 5, finishing companies like Horizon, Duplo and Vivid occupy Hall 6. Komori is in Hall 15, RMGT and Koenig & Bauer, and Durst, in Hall 16. Hall 13 is given over to secondhand machinery dealers, though half the floor space has not been allocated. According to the floor plan on Drupa’s website, there are a number of other spaces that are still to be filled, though it its unlikely that Xerox, Agfa and Manroland Sheetfed, participants in previous shows will be rushing to fill them.
