Messe Düsseldorf, Constanze Tillmann
On May 17–19, 2022, ProWein, the international wine and spirits trade fair, returned to Messe Düsseldorf after a two-year, pandemic-related pause. Some 5,700 exhibitors from 62 countries filled the 13 halls attended by more than 38,000 members of the drinks trade from 145 countries.
Erhrd Wienkamp, the managing director of the exhibition hall, Messe Düsseldorf, is grateful to the exhibitors and attendees at ProWein 2022.
“Due to the Covid peak in the first quarter of the year, we had to postpone all our spring trade fairs to May and June, or cancel them completely,” says Wienkamp. And, as for those who stuck with ProWein? “Their commitment has paid off,” he says, noting that exhibitors had already closed deals.
Anne-Laure Rayne-Helfrich, marketing executive assistant at Les Grands Chais de France, echoes this sentiment.
“We are so delighted that things are finally get going again after three years and ProWein is being held in Düsseldorf,” says Rayne-Helfrich. “We succeeded in reaching out to our customers–especially the buyers from Europe, the USA and Africa–and concluding good business deals.”
The Messe Düsseldorf team credits this success rate to the nature of ProWein’s exhibitors and attendees. Two-thirds of the wine and spirits trade members who attend ProWein have decision-making capacities in their businesses, they say.
Rayne-Helfrich agrees. “To us, ProWein is also so relevant because we can reach our essential target groups here–in concrete terms, specialist retail and importers and exporters.”