More companies, more space, more visitors

Appma announced that its 2004 trade show was the largest in its 46-year history, with 604 pet product manufacturers occupying 1,717 booths, 150 first-time exhibitors, 171,700 square feet (15,945 m²) of space (16 per cent up on last year) and two million pounds’ worth of pet products. Attendees at the show included qualified pet product buyers from the world’s leading retail chains, including pet superstores and other mass-market retailers, distributors, wholesalers and independent retailers. The total qualified buyer attendance increased by 18 per cent over last year and the number of international buyers attending rose by 23 per cent compared with last year.
Almost 600 new products featured in the New Products Showcase. APPMA awarded first and second prizes in 11 categories, as well as honourable mentions.
The Best Booth Award is designed to acknowledge creative booth design and trade show marketing excellence. The awards are presented in three categories, large booth, small booth and ‘What’s New!’ for new member companies. In the large booth category, which recognizes large booth configurations of 300 square feet (28 m²) or more, the first prize went to Scott Pet Products. Beefeaters/Petrapport Inc. took second place. In the small booth category, which recognizes small booth configurations of 200 square feet (19 m²) or less, the winner of the top prize was Marketing and Creative Sales, Inc. and second place was awarded to Birdola Products. In the What’s New! category, covering booths of any first-time exhibitors, the top slot was awarded to Bamboo and second place went to Hyper Products. Almost 600 new products featured in the New Products Showcase. APPMA awarded first and second prizes in 11 categories, as well as honourable mentions. The contest is designed to recognize the year’s best creative efforts in new pet products and point-of-sale displays.
The 2004 trade show was the largest in its 46-year history with 604 pet product manufacturers on 171,700 square feet (15,945 m2) of space.
Beginning in 2005, the APPMA and PIDA will merge their trade shows into the largest annual pet industry trade show in the world. The Global Pet Expo will debut March 13-15, 2005, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. By combining the best elements of The APPMA Show and PIDA’s Pet Exposition and Trade Show (PETS), the two organizations will work together to produce one major industry event. “By combining forces, we will be able to better serve both…