Cersaie - Bologna 2017 - survival
Quick - grab those memory foam shoes, pack the hangover pills and for goodness sake be on your best behaviour! No matter how things are, to the question "how's business" - supplier or customer - you always answer "we're doing great thanks"!!
Cersaie is an international affair - flirt heavily with/ charm?? manufacturers from all over the world and ooogle at the latest fashion styles! It's humbling when you see the 156k sqm of exhibition space (to give you an idea of the scale the NEC in Birmingham is 186k sqm) filled with all the different tiles from all over the world. It makes you aware of how huge the industry is on a global basis. We think we're doing well to order a couple of pallets when a lot of customers order 20 containers!
It’s always worth the slog (and believe me the feet certainly suffer from 3 days walking the 36 halls in the exhibition!). The efforts made by the factories to put on a good display are herculean. Of the 850+ exhibitors over 450 are tiles with the remainder associated products, from 43 different countries. Over 100,000 people make the effort to go, nearly half from outside Italy. The factories try to entice you onto their stand with various different methods! It used to be a man's world and that meant a bevy of Italian beauties scantily dressed or perhaps a fantastic culinary spread with vino, beer, and prosecco to help with those difficult buying decisions!!! The former outdated, the latter thankfully not!!!
40 years ago I went to my first Cersaie. We were then looking to buy 150x150mm wall tiles that dominated the UK market. In those days, floor tiles were mainly 6x6 inch quarries. The Italian factories are now manufacturing tiles (maybe slabs would be a better term) 3.2 metres by 1.6 metres. You don't get many of them to the box! The Italians have favoured this route because they have lost the market for wall tiles and "normal" sizes to the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and other countries that produce at better prices. If the factories think that size matters - ok carry on - if you think the general UK domestic market will embrace them - ask your local fixer!
With all these displays and bright lights it is easy to become tile blind and loose focus on what you believe to be the right product compared to what they are trying to sell you. It's very easy to order the latest thing, without realising its pretty much the same from all the factories. The difficulty is trying to find something different that at the same time will sell and I’m not sure how many 3.2m x1.6m tiles we could sell! The rural houses down our way are hardly likely to have impeccable straight walls or floors to accommodate such a covering!
It is, however, great to feel part of such a dynamic industry which continues to evolve. Tiles combine the art and science in a unique way with the creativity of the designers and the technology of production. Wow that makes it sound exciting, sexy, dynamic and amazing but actually it is the development over the years that brings me back to the exhibition year after year. We always find something interesting/ new and that’s what makes it so addictive!