Private meeting in Amsterdam

Mostly small to medium businesses are interested in joining the international production of private labels in Hungary. 1,600 companies from 70 countries attended the world exhibition held in Amsterdam at the end of May. Sixteen Hungarian enterprises occupied 162 square meters of exhibition space, rented by AMC. According to Olga Pavlova director of Detki Keksz Édesipari Kft., fairs like these are an excellent opportunity to meet new partners and to collect new ideas for further development. – As we had a positive experience at this event last year, we requested AMC to sponsor a Hungarian stand this year – she added. The Private Label Manufacturers’ Association was established in 1979 and now has 3,200 members from 60 countries. Only member companies are allowed to exhibit their products at their events. A day before the exhibition, PLMA also held a seminar about the latest trends in the private label industry. Brian Sharoff chairman of PLMA reported favourable developments. Private labels hold the highest market share in Switzerland with 46 per cent, while the highest market share in the EU is 43 per cent in the UK. In Eastern Europe, Slovakia is the leader with a 34 per cent market share for private labels. In Hungary, this percentage was 18 for food and 13 for household chemical products. Growth (between 1-3 per cent) is the trend everywhere. The majority of Germans, while only a minority of British and French think that private label products taste as good as “A” brands. One out of three Germans say that they will buy more private labels in the future, while this proportion was one out of six in the UK and France. The 16-24 age group is especially open to private labels and buys such products more frequently than other groups. New products and packaging were displayed at a special exhibition, the “PLMA Supermarket of Ideas”. Topics covered included innovations in wellness, bio-foods, children’s products, beauty care etc. Hungarian products here were a quick-frozen vegetable mix, quarter peach and dill from Mirsa Pest megyei Hűtőipari RT. József Losó CEO and president has told us that they had introduced 12 new products in the last 12 months. Eight of these had been entered for this competition and three were selected by the jury. Olga Pavlova also spoke about their innovations which focus on convenience. They have easy to prepare biscuit rolls and coconut balls under the name „Villámkonyha”. Only milk and water need to be added and even husbands can prepare cakes easily. Szilas Food have spices, spice mixes and marinades under the label Lucullus. They also sell salad dressings. According to József Imre managing director, they have some experience in manufacturing private labels and would be interested in boosting export. Zsuzsa Dobrotka from AMC showed us an interesting booklet with the names and activities of the visitors registered at the exhibition, which exhibitors had received one month before the event. According to our estimate, 20-25,000 visitors attended the two day event, where a two-day ticket cost EUR 170.