More trade visitors – increased internationality – smaller audience / More than 180,000 visitors came to Essen

Final Report of EQUITANA 2019

It was EQUITANA’s birthday, and everyone showed up: greats like Ingrid Klimke and Isabell Werth, stars like Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her brother Benjamin Werndl, legends like Ludger Beerbaum and icons like horseman Monty Roberts, web stars like Annica Hansen, and young female riders and trainers like Lisa Röckener. It all took place in EQUITANA’s typical atmosphere – up-close, palpable and eye to eye. Where else, after all, can you find all this: lessons, live training sessions and seminars with famous equestrians, national coaches and top trainers from all disciplines?

Christina Uetz, EQUITANA’s director for nearly 20 years, has the answer to that question: “The trade fair in this form is unique in the world. Despite its size as a world fair, EQUITANA creates these kinds of moments in direct exchanges, away from the arena where the tournaments take place. EQUITANA – that’s nine days and nights full of emotions.”

It’s a concept that’s as well received by visitors as it is by the top athletes themselves. Take Ingrid Klimke, for example, the two-time team eventing Olympic champion: “EQUITANA is a successful mix that has something to offer for everyone. I like that aspect particularly well. This merging of different interests and disciplines is unique and ensures that everyone feels comfortable at the trade fair. Similarly, Uta Graf, herself a Grand Prix trainer, simply considers EQUITANA an “educational holiday”.

The world’s leading business platform: More customers from all continents

But EQUITANA didn’t just shine in the actual riding department. As the world’s largest trade fair, the “Mother of All Equestrian Fairs” also underscored its position as the most important international industry gathering. With customers from all continents: from America to Australia, Asia and Arabia to South Africa and large visitor delegations from Brazil, China and Russia.

They generated enormous demand in the capital goods halls, despite talk by industry insiders of an economy that has cooled down a bit after the boom of the previous two years.

Klaus Reinken, the managing director of Waldhausen GmbH & Co. KG, emphasises that point: “After the good years, the climate in the equestrian market has cooled some. We’re at a level below the boom years of 2017 but above 2015. Nevertheless: quality sells.”

Klaus Böckmann, managing director of Böckmann Fahrzeugwerke GmbH, agrees with this assessment: “The registration numbers in the vehicle and transport sector have declined slightly, making it all the more important for us that EQUITANA continued to boost its level of internationality. That’s why we’re very satisfied; we had good sales.” Paul Spliethoff, managing director of Rampelmann & Spliethoff GmbH & Co. KG, confirms that view: “Compared to prior years, we closed many more deals. Important for us – and EQUITANA 2019 confirmed this again – is the high internationality of the contacts at the trade fair.”

With a total of about 33,000 trade visitors, EQUITANA recorded a slight increase of three per cent over the previous event.   

Uninvited guests on a rant: Storm Eberhard and his brothers

Making the birthday party a little bit less grandiose than planned was an uninvited guest, which held a firm grip on EQUITANA on the first Sunday. Storm Eberhard raged over Essen with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour, grinding to a complete halt all rail traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia and long-distance traffic across Germany. Additional cyclones and almost daily weather warnings followed.

With serious consequences for EQUITANA: counting 183,000 visitors, including 25,000 guests at the evening events and shows, EQUITANA trailed the result of the last event by 12 per cent.

“Starting with the next EQUITANA in 2021, the entire exhibition centre will be available to us again. This will give us new room to manoeuvre when it comes to planning the new EQUITANA, which will no longer take place ‘under construction’ at that point”, says Hans-Joachim Erbel, CEO of organiser Reed Exhibitions Deutschland. Due to the construction of additional space, this year’s EQUITANA was partially limited in the available area it could use.

Upcoming EQUITANA events

The next EQUITANA will take place at the Exhibition Centre Essen from 13 to 21 March 2021.

A new event on the schedule is EQUITANA Open Air in Mannheim, which will be held at the Maimarktgelände exhibition site from 5 to 7 July 2019. The following year, EQUITANA Open Air will take place at the Racecourse in Neuss from 11 to 14 June 2020.

For information on EQUITANA, the Cups, Innovation Award winners and press photos, please visit the press section at

www.equitana.com

Note on visitor numbers

EQUITANA’s visitor, exhibitor and floor space figures are calculated and certified according to the uniform definitions published by FKM – German Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics.

Exhibitor testimonials

“The registration numbers in the vehicle and transport sector have declined slightly, making it all the more important for us that EQUITANA continued to boost its level of internationality. That’s why we’re very satisfied; we had good sales.”

Klaus Böckmann, Managing Director, Böckmann Fahrzeugwerke GmbH

“After the good years, the climate in the equestrian market has cooled some. We’re at a level below the boom years of 2017 but above 2015. Nevertheless: quality sells.”

Klaus Reinken, Managing Director, Waldhausen GmbH & Co. KG

“Compared to prior years, we closed many more deals. Important for us – and EQUITANA 2019 confirmed this again – is the high internationality of the contacts at the trade fair.”

Paul Spliethoff, Managing Director, Rampelmann & Spliethoff GmbH & Co. KG

“At EQUITANA, we can showcase our complete product range and our new products. The visitors were highly interested and showed us that demand for high-quality personalised feed advice is on the rise.”

Daniela Gentz, Product Manager, Höveler Spezialfutterwerke GmbH & Co. KG

“Our sales were up from two years ago. We’re delighted by that. The stand in Hall 2 was very well received by visitors, and in Hall 8 we conducted lots of saddle consultations and already set up numerous follow-up meetings for the time after the trade fair. We’re very satisfied with that.”

Johannes Stübben, Managing Director, Joh's Stübben GmbH & Co. KG

“We’re satisfied in every respect with the days at the trade fair. We saw heavy traffic at both our stands in Halls 2 and 5, and we had an excellent audience. The training unit with Simone Blum and the meeting with the web stars were also well attended. All in all, it was a very enjoyable EQUITANA.”

Thekla Dieckmann, Managing Director, SPOOKS GmbH