High Degree of Exhibitor Satisfaction at ispo Russia winter 07

• Total of 4,311 trade visitors and 1,348 opinion leaders obtain information in the Crocus Expo Center Moscow (2006: 6,821 total)
• Successful initiation of new business relations and plenty of orders for international brands and exhibitors
• A total of 250 exhibitors from 21 countries exhibited their product innovations and current sports fashion collections on 10,500 sq. m.
• Football & Finance Conference, Global Sport Sponsoring Congress and Sport in Russia Forum record very good attendance

A total of 250 exhibitors from 21 countries (2006: 230 brands from 21 countries) exhibited an extensive product range of the latest developments and designs from the segments Winter Sport, Outdoor, Team Sport, Sportstyle, Boardsports and Running at ispo Russia winter 07 from February 19 to 22.

The comprehensive seminar and event program presented talks about the topics “Main Trends in Sports Retail in Russia” and “Sport Facilities”, among others, and the ispo Russia Climbing Cup, the Russian Freestyle Battle and the Indoor Jib Contest provided an atmosphere full of sports action in the trade fair hall. The crowning conclusion of the second trade fair day was the “Ice Show” for exhibitors, invited guests and VIPs with a star line-up of European and world champions as well as the current Olympic gold medalists Tatjana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin.

Manfred Wutzlhofer, Chief Executive Officer of Messe München GmbH, stated:
“The second ispo Russia was able to make the latest trends known to many retailers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and establish contacts to international brands for them. Thanks to numerous orders and the visits of new retailers, we were able to register a very high degree of exhibitor satisfaction in spite of a decline in the number of visitors. Poor weather conditions, the closeness to the Army Day holiday, more Russian sports retailers at ispo winter 07 in Munich as well as the location of the Crocus Expo Center are reasons for the decline in visitors, especially from the Moscow region. We are going to improve the trade fair concept further in the sense necessary for exhibitors and trade visitors, especially with respect to location and trade fair dates.”

Thanks to the 30 representative offices of the ispo Russia Buyer Program, 400 leading sports equipment and sports fashion retailers from various Russia regions were again provided information in advance of the event and invited to visit ispo Russia winter. This is a measure, which has proved to be very valuable, as the feedback of the exhibitors concerning the visitor quality demonstrates. “We are very satisfied with the course of the first two trade fair days at ispo Russia. We were able to establish numerous interesting contacts to Russia business partners,” representatives of the German sports equipment and sports fashion industries reported in agreement, who were represented for the first time at a joint booth of the BSI in Moscow subsidized by the German Economics Ministry. “Above all, we are surprised that sports retailing has developed in almost breathtaking speed in Russia. The demand for high-quality products in all categories from winter sports to team sports and all the way to running and fitness is growing at a very high speed.” Eleven companies exhibited jointly under the auspices of the German joint booth. In addition, there were Chinese, Scandinavian and French joint booths as well as a Russian Outdoor Village.

“We were never more than 10 minutes without customers at our booth,” distinguished financier Wilhelm Ehrlich from the Sportalm Company in Kitzbühel described the success of his company on the Russian market already at the end of the first trade fair day. The sports fashion entrepreneur from Austria, widely known in Russia as Mr. Sportalm, started his successful penetration of the Russian market from Vienna nine years ago and has a winter sports collection specifically for ispo Russia, which is oriented to the Russian market and its needs. “The good preparation of this trade fair really paid off for our company. We arranged suitable visit schedules with all of our customers.”

Representatives of the Russian association of the sports equipment industry RASIE underlined the significance of sports and the important function of ispo Russia in this context. It met for round table talks under chairmanship of the President Viatcheslav Starshinov with the chairperson of the DUMA committee for sport, Vladislav Tretiak, and the chairperson of the committee of the same name in the Federation Council, the second chamber of the Russian parliament, Vladimir Mutko. The representatives of politics and business explained the possibilities of the government and communities to promote sports, especially for children and youths, more strongly than previously within the framework of this “Sports in Russia” forum.

The two-day business congress of ispo Russia, which dealt above all with financing soccer and was held for third time, attracted a lot of attention of the trade visitors and the Russian trade public. “Global Sport Sponsoring” was the topic of this congress, which registered a lot of participants; its most prominent guest was the German player with the greatest number of international appearances for his country and coach of Red Bull Salzburg, Lothar Matthäus. The congress was chaired by Andrei Simonov, the marketing director of FC Dynamo Moscow. The president of the Russian pro league, Mihail Vorontsov, and Viatcheslav Starchinov, the president of the Russian sports equipment industry association, also participated. Among others, the CEO of the Sport Media Service GmbH, Armin Gastl, presented Internet strategies in soccer, and Werner Klein from FC Bayern München talked about work promoting young, talented soccer players..

Exhibitor Comments about ispo Russia winter 07:

Artur Berchtold, Capo:
“We are very satisfied with the quantity and quality of visitors. This is already the second time we have taken part in this fair. We found distributors at the trade fair in September and already exhibited together with them this time. In addition to business, we find the variety of events very good, which the trade fair has to offer.

Sergey Titarenko, Petersport (Official Distributor for Jack Wolfskin):
“We were still visitors at the trade fair last year, and this year we are here as exhibitors for the first time. All the retailers, whom we invited, came to our booth. In addition, we were able to establish a few new contacts, although it is difficult to assess their quality at the current time. That will only become clear after a few weeks.”

Alexey Selivanov, Trespass:
“We had 25-30 buyers at our booth, including some new contacts too. For us it is very important that we meet new buyers from the regions, and this was the case. I am satisfied with the show.”

Laurent Peraunt, Psykopit:
“For us it is a good show. We are for the first time here with the French village, and we can see that we have no competitors here. The goal was to come first before the other big brands. We had several good contacts before the show. We met several distributors, and finally we will sign with one of them. Our collection was very well received.”

Pierre Gjerowsky , Boheme:
“ispo Russia is very well organized. We did not see too many people, but those we met were very interesting contacts. In the end, we found very good partners.”

Rein Hamburg, Five Seasons:
“The first two days were very good for us. We prepared the show by planning meetings, and that’s why we were able to take some orders. We’ve also met new clients.”

Retailer Comments about ispo Russia winter 07:
Alexei Pshenichny, Top League, Krasnodar
“ispo Russia is an important platform for my company, at which we obtain information about new trends. We also meet our most important brand partners here and discuss the sales strategy with them, which we plan together.” Thirty-five sports equipment stores belong to Top League. They range from 150 to 300 square meters of sales space in 10 cities, mainly in the south of Russia.

Olga Gretchenko, Wladiwostok und Chabarowsk:
“We were able to talk to all business partners, who are important for us, learn about new trends and inspect and order sportswear and sports shoes at ispo Russia. Above all, we want to expand our fitness business in the future and are searching for the necessary contacts to important specialist companies for that here. We are doing that in Moscow, although it is nine hours by plane from us. But we are also doing it at ispo china, which we can reach in only four hours by plane.”

Igor Antonov, Navigator Sport St. Petersburg:
“In addition to our business as a wholesaler, we also manufacture rubber dinghies for sports. We also go to a lot of effort to provide a good product range for all needs of club sports and the teams in our large region in the northwest of Russia. We want to open a specialty store in St. Petersburg at the end of the year to that end. We establish the necessary additional contacts for that at the trade fair. After all, we are already the most important equipment provider for sports in St. Petersburg and the whole of Russia’s northwest.”

ispo Russia summer 07 will take place in Moscow from September 5 to 8, 2007.