Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Trade show Ambiente was officially opened this morning (Friday February 12) by representatives of the German government, the City of Frankfurt am Main and the Italian government.
The opening speech was made on behalf of the German government by Michael Roth, Member of the German Parliament and Minister of State for Europe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said: “I am delighted that Italy is this year’s Ambiente Partner Country. And I say this not only as a lover of elegant design but also, in my capacity as Minister of State for Europe, because Italy is one of our closest European economic and political partners. The German-Italian friendship has always been at the core of European unity and one of the keystones of the European Union.”
The City of Frankfurt am Main was represented by Mayor Peter Feldmann, who said, “With Ambiente, the city of Frankfurt once again becomes the heart of a global sector: the consumer-goods industry. Here, manufacturers and retailers from all around the globe meet; here, they find goods from all different segments, stock up with the products they need, and gain inspiration from the latest innovations.”
Alessandro Gaudiano, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Italy in Berlin, also took part in the opening ceremony in honour of the choice of Italy as this year’s Partner Country.
A subsequent tour of Ambiente gave the representatives of both countries, as well as the Mayor of the City of Frankfurt, a chance to see the huge range of products on show. One of the stops on their tour was the ‘La Dolce Vita’ special exhibition by designer Paola Navone on the theme of Italian design. This year, a total of 4,387 exhibitors from 96 nations are showing their new products for the tableware, kitchen, household, gifts, decorative articles, home concepts and furnishing accessory segments. Due to the construction work for the new hall 12, Ambiente occupies 308,000sq m of exhibition space (gross) compared with 328,400 in 2015.
Ambiente highlights for 2016 include a variety of promotional programmes for young designers and trend and design shows. On ‘Italy Day’ (February 15), there will be a comprehensive programme of events revolving around the Italian way of life, wining & dining and new products from Italy. Also on this day, German film and stage actor Mario Adorf will visit the show.
l-r: Detlef Braun, Alessandro Gaudiano, Michael Roth, Peter Feldmann
