ProWein well positioned for the future

The ProWein anniversary has just drawn to a successful close – but the future course for the world’s biggest and most relevant trade fair for the wine and spirits industries has already been charted and the “starting pistol” fired for ProWein 2025 in Düsseldorf. With immediate effect exhibitors from all over the world can register for the coming ProWein – deadline for registrations is 30 June. Approval and, hence, the concrete allocation of hall space will run until late September 2024.

“Under the motto Discover The Taste of Tomorrow we will head off into the future with a new look & feel plus tailor-made concepts. The linchpin here will be the condensed space allocation inside the eleven ProWein exhibition halls. Entirely in the interest of our exhibitors and visitors from throughout the world, we will arrange ProWein in a markedly more compact structure again like prior to the pandemic,” explains Peter Schmitz, Director ProWein. For visitors this has the advantage of shorter distances between exhibitors. This also goes hand in hand with a relocation of individual wine-growing nations. The ranges at ProWein 2025 will therefore be structured as follows:

• Halls 1 and 4: Germany
• Hall 5: ProSpirits
• Hall 7.0: Trendshow “same but different”
• Hall 9: Portugal & other European countries
• Hall 10: France
• Hall 11: Spain
• Hall 12: New World
• Halls 15 and 16: Italy
• Hall 17: Greece & Austria

ProWein hallmarks: current trends in focus

“Clear segmentation of ranges in the halls is as important to us as developing tailor-made concepts for our trade visitors and picking up and driving relevant industry trends. At the end of the day, this benefits both exhibitors and visitors alike. Accordingly, we constantly develop this concept further,” underlines Peter Schmitz. Worth a particular mention here are the trend shows and themed worlds which are a central hallmark of ProWein. Specifically, these are:

• ProSpirits: This new brand world for spirits celebrated an impressive first at ProWein 2024. Filling all of Hall 5 and located in the immediate vicinity of the trend show “same but different” for the hip, urban bar scene, ProSpirits was all about spirits. Some 300 exhibitors from over 40 countries presented their products on space measuring around 5,500 square metres, an extra 1,700 square metres over the previous event – and thereby providing impressive proof of the potential spirits hold.
• ProWein Zero: Only three years ago the “no-and-low” theme played virtually no role in the industry; this ProWein special show picked up on this theme and gave it additional drive.
• Packaging & Design: The theme of alternative packaging with products such as PET wine bottles or recyclable aluminium cans experienced a similar development. The special show in combination with the Trend Hour Tastings by ProWein scouts Paula Sidore and Stuart Pigott provided extra impulses here.
• Concept Store: The special show on marketing wine and spirits at the Point of Sale also debuted at ProWein 2024. An idea that is still in its infancy – but taking on more and more relevance.

ProWein is completed by the themed worlds “urban gastronomy by #asktoni & ProWein”, the Champagne Lounge and corresponding guided tour “Champagne for the Future” plus the ProWein forums. Business-related topics such as AI or sustainability will also continue to be proactively focalised by ProWein.

New Managing Director for the Wine & Spirits Portfolio

From 1 August 2024, Marius Berlemann will be the new Managing Director Operative Trade Fair Business at Messe Düsseldorf, succeeding Erhard Wienkamp, who will retire at the end of July 2024. In addition to numerous leading world trade fairs, Marius Berlemann will also take over the Wine & Spirits portfolio with ProWein and, together with Michael Degen, Executive Director Messe Düsseldorf, and Peter Schmitz, Director ProWein, will form the new management team of the ProWein World family. After serving as Global Head Wine & Spirits and Director of ProWein from 2016 to 2019, Marius Berlemann assumed project and staff responsibility for Messe Düsseldorf’s entire portfolio in China as General Manager Messe Düsseldorf Shanghai Co. Ltd. which also includes ProWine Shanghai and Pro-Wine Hong Kong.