Tag Archives: Europe organic industry

Vivaness 2020: [Show Report]

I began writing this trade show review just after Vivaness 2020, the world’s biggest organic beauty trade show, had ended. That was in late February and just a few weeks before Corona arrived in Europe.

Then came the lockdown and cancelled travel plans and all the rest of it, and other things in my life took priority – like tidying up my collection of cooking spices, cleaning out various cupboards and watching a lot of 1980s and 1990s TV series on DVD.

However, now that things in Germany have started to inch towards a precarious kind of (new) normality I decided that it was high time to finish this article. Which I did. Yay me. So if you detect a certain patchiness to this text that’s why: parts of it were written pre-Corona, the rest post-Corona. Or PreC and PostC. February and Vivaness seem like a very long time ago. Anyway.

This year’s Vivaness took place from 12th to 15th February in Nuremberg, a pretty medium-sized historic city in the Frankonia region of Germany. Vivaness and its sister trade fair Biofach (the biggest organic food products expo in the world) are an annual fixture on the European organic industry trade fair circuit.

The first Biofach show took place back in 1990 so this expo’s been around for 30 years. In 1999 the trade fair moved to Nuremberg and in 2007 Biofach’s organic beauty section was spun off into a separate trade show, Vivaness. The two trade fairs always take place in February and, incidentally, pretty much always in rain and snow. February in Nuremberg can be cold!

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under Exhibitions, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends

Vivaness 2018: [Show Report]

Well, Vivaness 2018 has come and gone. The 11th edition of the trade fair took place from 14th to 17th February 2018 together with sister show Biofach, the biggest organic food trade show worldwide. I actually had to go through my old show reports to count how many times I’ve attended this trade show; 2018 was my fifth Vivaness visit.

In total there were 3,218 exhibitors at both shows (275 of these companies and brands were Vivaness exhibitors) which is a big increase compared to 2017 – check out my show reviews for Vivaness 2014, Vivaness 2015, Vivaness 2016 and Vivaness 2017.

This year’s trade fair seemed to feature more small and newcomer brands than previous years (especially in the newcomer Breeze exhibition area) which was fabulous – after all, this is one of the main reasons why I love visiting trade shows: new brand discoveries!

Which is also why this show review will focus on international niche and start-up brands (many of which you’ll recognize from my Instagram feed).  Also, with a few exceptions, these are all brands that I’ve never written about on trend-traveller, so this is quite exciting for me as well. I’ve grouped the brands by country, but in no particular order.

And now, click on the link below to read more about my favourite brand discoveries at Vivaness 2018!

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under Brand Profiles, Industry News, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Trends

Cosmoprof Bologna 2017 [Show Report]

Cosmoprof Bologna 2017 finished on a high note: according to organiser BolognaFiere, 2,677 exhibitors from 69 countries and more than 250,000 visitors from 150 countries attended the fair.

2017 marked the 50th edition of the world’s biggest C&T trade show and there were several new features to celebrate the anniversary. It was my second visit to Cosmoprof Bologna; you can read my show review of Cosmoprof Bologna 2016 here.

Cosmoprof Bologna is so big that it is impossible to cover the entire trade show, even if you are there for the entire five days. I decided to skip Cosmopack and the Hair and Nail halls and instead focused on Cosmoprime (Hall 19), on Hall 21 (green and natural cosmetics) and on Halls 29, 30 and 35c which is where the country pavilions are located.

And here, roughly organised by Halls but in no particular order, are some  of my favourite brand discoveries at Cosmoprof Bologna 2017!


Continue reading

9 Comments

Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Mintel, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel

Vivaness 2017: [Show Report]

Well, Europe’s biggest organic beauty trade fair Vivaness and its companion show Biofach (the world’s biggest organic food show) have come and gone.

This year the two trade fairs took place from 15th to 18th February 2017 in Nuremberg. According to organisers Messe Nürnberg, more than 50.000 visitors from 134 countries visited the two trade shows. There were 2,785 organic exhibitors  in total (259 of these brands/companies were at Vivaness) and this year’s Country of the Year was the host country, Germany.

As always, it was an exciting and exhausting four days! This was my fourth trade show (if you’re interested: here are the Vivaness 2014, Vivaness 2015 and Vivaness 2016 articles). And now, without further ado and in no particular order, here are my favourite brand discoveries at Vivaness 2017!

vivaness-2017-8

Continue reading

11 Comments

Filed under Industry News, Mintel, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends

Natural Cosmetics Conference 2016: [Show Report]

From 27th to 28th September 2016 the annual Naturkosmetikbranchenkongress (Natural Cosmetics Conference) took place here in Berlin.

This year, the conference focused on digitalization and its effect on the consumer: how the constantly growing connectivity is changing our society and altering consumer behavior and consumer expectations. The digital world is transforming existing retail structures, market dynamics and brand management, but it also creates exciting new opportunities for companies, brands and consumers. Excellent presentations, a great keynote speaker and interesting panelists and attendees made this one of my favourite Branchenkongress events so far.

Click on the link below for a review of the conference. Be warned though, this is one of my longer reports (I had my laptop with me so my notes are very detailed indeed)!

branchenkongress-2016_pics-2

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Berlin, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Mintel, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trends

Retail notes from London: [Show Report] Natural & Organic Products Europe 2016

Last weekend I attended Natural & Organic Products Europe trade show in London (17th-18th April 2016). The UK’s biggest natural products fair celebrated its 20th anniversary this year; congratulations! I seem to remember visiting Natural & Organic Products Europe back in 2004 or 2005 (at that time, it was still held in Olympia). However, in 2015 the show moved to the ExCel exhibition centre in East London, out in the Docklands, and this is also where this year’s trade fair took place.

According to trade show organisers Diversified Communications, some 650 exhibitors from the organic and natural food, beauty and supplements industry attended NOPE and there were over 9500 visitors. The trade fair was divided into four sections: The Natural Food Show (which accounted for around 50% of the exhibition space), Natural Beauty & Spa (around 25%), Natural Living and Natural Health (also 25%). Since I only had one day at the show, I focused on the C&T part of the trade fair but also found the time to check out some of the food exhibitors – superfoods, coconut products, raw chocolate, dairy/meat substitutes and free-from foods were much in evidence!

In the Beauty and Food sections of the show there were Natural & Organic Awards Europe showcases: visitors could vote for their favourite new product and a panel of judges then decided on the winning entries in 13 categories.  In addition there was a conference program of lectures and presentations on various health and beauty topics and the Natural Food Kitchen over in the organic food section featured live cooking demonstrations. Nice!

And here, in no particular order, are some of my favourite beauty discoveries from Natural & Organic Products Europe 2016, starting with the international exhibitors!

IMG_5806

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends

Cosmoprof Bologna 2016 [Show Report]

Last weekend I was in Italy to attend the biggest C&T trade show in the world: Cosmoprof Bologna! It was my first time at the Italian version of Cosmoprof; I’ve visited Cosmoprof Asia in Hong Kong (here are my articles about Cosmoprof Asia 2014 and Cosmoprof Asia 2015) but Cosmoprof Bologna is another experience altogether. In three words: it is gigantic!

Cosmoprof Bologna (18th-21st March 2016) took place in conjunction with packaging/ingredients trade show Cosmopack (17th-20th March 2016). With more than 2,500 exhibitors from around the world (73% from outside of Italy), 25 country pavilions, new trade show sections like Cosmoprof Wellness (spa beauty) and the 1st Cosmoprof Barber Show (barbering and beard care), it was a fabulous weekend. Read on for an overview of my favourite brand discoveries!

IMG_5611

Continue reading

9 Comments

Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends

Vivaness 2016: [Show Report]

Last week I was in Nuremberg to attend Vivaness, Europe’s biggest organic C&T trade fair. This year, Vivaness celebrated its 10th anniversary; happy birthday! The official trade show statistics speak for themselves: organizers Messe Nuremberg have announced that 48.000 visitors from 132 countries visited Vivaness and its companion trade show Biofach (the world’s biggest organic food show. EVER!), an increase of around 7% compared to 2015.

Altogether there were 2.544 exhibitors from 77 countries at both shows (Vivaness: 245 companies from 33 countries) and you can imagine how busy the trade show centre in Nuremberg was. Biofach/Vivaness always has a fantastic atmosphere: different languages everywhere, people rushing around like mad, exciting new brands to discover and interesting people to talk to…it’s one of my favourite German trade shows.

So let’s dive right in: here are some of my favourite brand discoveries from Vivaness 2016! Also, this article is even longer than my show report on Cosmoprof Hong Kong 2015 – you have been warned.

Vivaness, Day 1 (16) Continue reading

13 Comments

Filed under Exhibitions, Industry News, Mintel, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends

Natural Cosmetics Conference 2014: [Show Report] Day Two

The second part of my article about the Natural Cosmetics Conference here in Berlin: again, be warned: this is a long text! Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Berlin, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trends

Organic beauty in Europe 2014: ECM article

A few months ago I researched and wrote a feature on the organic beauty market in Europe. Great fun it was; unfortunately I had to stick to my 3000 word limit  – I could have written twice as much! – but even so I think the article turned out well. Here it is. As always, please respect the copyright (ECM Magazine, April 2014, HPCi Media)!

Leave a comment

Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail