LIGNA 2011 was a very good show for us, and the whole thing went very well. We recorded a significant increase in visitor numbers at our stand compared with two years ago, and we saw a noticeable regional shift. There were definitely more foreign visitors this year. In first place was Europe, then came Asia, while Germany was less well represented than in 2009. Compared with previous shows we had a lot of serious inquiries. And this meant that we took significantly more orders during the course of the show than we had in earlier years

he Cefla Finishing Group exhibited a whole series of innovative products and technologies at LIGNA, which fill a gap in the market and bring our range right up to date. Customers today have a greater need for a partner with a global presence and the necessary know-how to advise them on the restructuring of their processes in order to maximize flexibility, particularly as regards cost savings and the conservation of resources. Compared with its predecessor in 2009 this year’s show was a great success. We doubled our number of new customer contacts and successfully concluded a large number of sales negotiations. Thanks to this positive outcome the Cefla Finishing Group is looking to the future with great optimism.

It’s always worthwhile making the journey to Hannover – and that turned out to be true again in 2011. We witnessed a LIGNA that reaffirmed its position as the industry’s leading trade fair worldwide. At our stand we saw a very international mix of visitors, with distinctly more decision-makers than before. The show’s tagline “Making more out of Wood” turned out to be just right for Weinig, because it exactly summed up what the market is looking for. Weinig supplies this market with a complete range of machines, systems and services, and we were rewarded in Hannover with a lot of inquiries and good sales figures. It all served to demonstrate that our focus on affordable, quality products that meet the customer’s individual needs is the right way to go

We had been expecting a good LIGNA. Even so, we were agreeably surprised by the large number of visitors who came to the Grecon stand and took an active interest in our products. This was certainly helped by the exciting innovations we had brought to the show again, such as the “GreCon Touch”, the new user interface for our alarm monitoring centre, as well as the analysis of formaldehyde emissions and the extended “Superscan” family of scanning devices for inspecting the surface of decorative or unfinished panels. This is technology that can help all woodworking enterprises to improve the reliability and efficiency of their production operations.

The outcome of this year’s show confirmed the unique standing of LIGNA as the leading trade fair for the woodworking industry. There’s certainly nothing comparable in terms of international appeal. The European market in particular was well represented, notably Turkey, Northern and Central Europe. The standard of the projects was extraordinarily high, and the prospects for successful follow-up business in all areas of activity are excellent.

After LIGNA 2009 didn’t do so well as usual because of the economic crisis, our expectations of the 2011 show were correspondingly higher. In the event, the show clearly exceeded our expectations. We found visitors very keen to invest, and this, coupled with our innovative presentations – for our high-gloss surface finishing system, for example – meant that we had generated lots of good sales leads before the end of the show. The high proportion of inquiries from foreign visitors gave a great boost to our international business activities.

We shared a joint trade show stand of nearly 2,500 square metres with Ima and Priess+Horstmann, and presented what the demanding furniture industry of tomorrow requires. Full order books all round indicate that we had chosen the right features to emphasize. LIGNA is unquestionably the world’s most important trade fair for the timber industry, and this year’s show attracted some 90,000 people. Many of them found their way to our stand in order to watch 25 machines and systems in action. The top attractions at the Schelling display were our flat storage unit, the robot stacking system, the new deep-cut unit and the “ah 9” panel separating saw. The success of Schelling’s LIGNA presentation confirms the wisdom of the company’s strategy, which consistently emphasizes the productivity, reliability and precision of its saws and production systems.

We are very pleased with the way LIGNA 2011 went. This year’s visitors came from many different countries, and their inquiries were extremely specific. It was particularly gratifying that the expert panel awarded first place in the 18th Innovations Symposium this year to our fast colour-change spray painting system. After having already won the “iF Product Design Award” in 2011 for the design of the new spray painting line “Ven Spray Perfect”, Venkajob has now won a second award for its technical excellence.

Looking back at LIGNA 2011, it is fair to say that we are totally satisfied with the show and its outcome. Compared with the record year in 2007 we did distinctly better, and our new orders at this year’s show were up by around 20 per cent. Compared with 2009 the increase was even more dramatic, close to 50 per cent. Our trade show stand under the tagline “Homag City – the Capital of Woodworking” once again proved to be one of the big attractions of the show. We unveiled innovative products both for furniture production and for the fabrication of structural elements for the building industry. There’s no doubt that LIGNA 2011 was a worthwhile investment for the Homag Group and its existing and future customers.

LIGNA 2011 was an outstanding success for Siempelkamp, and on two counts. Firstly, we had brought a series of new products to the show that really went down well with customers in view of the show’s big focus on resource efficiency. The promise of significant savings in material input and adhesives was greeted with great interest by our target buyer group. And secondly, we were very pleased with the number and quality of new customer contacts at the show. Nearly all our customers from the fastgrowing regions of the world visited our stand, and we had many detailed discussions about our newest plant and systems for the wood panel industry. It all augurs very well for business in 2011 and beyond.

LIGNA was a big success for Holz-Her. With a new logo and a newlook presentation, Holz-Her created a new identity for itself, and this was very well received by dealers and the trade public. LIGNA proved once again that it has the power to attract the industry’s key decision-makers. Here new products and technical innovations were able to reach a very wide audience, consisting both of end customers and trade distributors.