The 30th HORECA®/GASTROFOOD Trade Fair and the 20th ENOEXPO® Trade Fair took place from 8 to 10 November at the EXPO Krakow. This anniversary event attracted almost 300 exhibitors and a record number of more than 10,000 specific visitors from the HoReCa industry since the pandemic. The fair programme included numerous training courses, demonstrations and unique tasting events. Each day of the fair was highlighted by prestigious events: the final of the Bocuse d’Or Poland competition, the Polish Coffee Championships and the first edition of the culinary competition for young people – Trophée Mille Poland.

 

The HORECA® Trade Fair is a must-attend event!

At the HORECA® and GASTROFOOD Trade Fair, exhibitors from all over Poland and foreign countries presented comprehensive equipment for hotels and other leisure facilities, restaurants, cafés and other catering outlets, as well as food and beverages. Companies associated with the fair for years and those just opening up to the HoReCa sector both unanimously admitted that they had made plenty of business contacts at this year’s edition, and the number of visitors interested in cooperation was very good. “We are here at the Krakow trade fair because it is a terrific event that we have taken part in umpteen times, and it is a recurrent fixture for us in the company’s calendar of events (...). There are fantastic, knowledgeable customers who come very well prepared; we meet business partners and existing customers who check out our equipment and new products. The trade fair in Krakow is an event you have to be at,” admits Marcin Wajda of Winterhalter Polska. Mateusz Budek of Fresco Coffee, a company that imports coffee machines, is of a similar opinion – “At the fair, we present professional coffee machines for catering, offices, hotels and cob coffee machines for coffee shops. There are many more end customers here, i.e. restaurants, cafés and hotels, compared to other fairs we have exhibited at, where distributors and manufacturers dominate.”

 

Successful débuts at HORECA® and GASTROFOOD

The decision to participate in GASTROFOOD proved to be a hit with companies from the bakery and confectionery sectors. As Katarzyna Lubowiecka-Tulin, representative of the La Lorraine Polska bakery, admits: “We gained a lot of customers and made numerous contacts at the fair. Our target group is customers from all over Poland and we found them here. We were visited by people from southern Poland, but also the centre – for example, from Mazowia or the Łódz Province. The fairs give us the benefit of face-to-face meetings with customers, which is very important to us. The day of the Bocuse d’Or culinary competition, which brought renowned chefs together, was particularly fruitful in terms of contacts.”

More and more entrepreneurs, previously active in other areas, are opening up to the HoReCa sector. One example is Kames, which promoted the bar and café line of Doumix products: “This is our first time at this trade fair and it is very interesting for us because of the completely different audience and clients than at the typical events we exhibit at. The HoReCa industry is a slightly different market structure. We have customers from all over Poland here, most recently from Gdańsk, for example. We are pleased to have made quite a few contacts, which we will certainly use,” says Tomasz Kawalec.

The Fier brand, a producer of top-quality fish and seafood products from its own farms and catches, made a spectacular début at the fair. “The Fier brand is a new sales platform project in the B2B and B2C direction that has been in existence for 3 weeks and the HORECA® fair in Krakow is our first opportunity to present the brand. Our aim was to showcase our luxury products to the best chefs in Poland and this goal was 100% achieved, as top chefs visited our stand and gave their feedback,” Sebastian Grabowski of Fier Sea Food concludes.

The value of meeting customers face-to-face is emphasised by another newcomer at HORECA®, a company offering professional filters for various catering equipment, such as coffee machines or combi ovens. “Due to the fact that there are a lot of current and potential end-users of our products at the fair, it is a very good place to do some educating. We have a lot of enquiries and we also have the opportunity to talk to our existing customers in a relaxed manner and discuss business objectives. We have customers here and in general our assessment of the fair is very good,” says Eliza Morawska from Brita Polska.

Three world-class competitions

In this edition, the HORECA® and ENOEXPO® trade fairs made space available and provided organisational support for two prestigious culinary competitions and the SCA Poland Coffee Championships. Sponsors and participants were impressed by the world-class organisation of these events. The final of the Bocuse d’Or Poland competition was won by Kamil Tłuczek, chef of the Patio restaurant in Rzeszów. His daughter, Patrycja Szczepaniak, helped him prepare the exquisite dishes. The competition between chefs, the presentation of the dishes to a distinguished international tasting jury of 12 people and the announcement of the winners were not only spectacular, but also very exciting and attracted a large audience.

Friday saw the first Polish edition of the Trophée Mille culinary and pastry competition for young people, with the winners being Wiktoria Suchenko and Robert Szczałba from the Mjr H. Sucharski Culinary School in Krakow. The winners will perform in the final of the competition in Reims, France.

In turn, the SCA Poland Coffee Championships, held for the second time at EXPO Krakow, have been growing fantastically. This year, on two large stages, we admired the struggle of participants in as many as three competitions. Finalists competed in the Roasters Championship, Cup Tasters and Coffee in Good Spirits. “As SCA Poland, we are once again in Krakow during the HORECA® trade fair. You can see by the number of competitors and spectators for the competition between the best baristas that there is a very strong interest in quality coffee, and this interest is growing; and we as Championship organisers are able to do larger and larger competitions, with bigger stages and numerous sponsors. Despite a more testing period in the market, it is apparent that the professional coffee industry is growing and has very strong potential. It is worth doing such big events, with a lot of momentum, because it translates into interest in the whole industry,” concludes Marcin Rzońca of SCA Poland.

Attractive training, workshops and tastings

The training rooms of EXPO Krakow were filled to capacity, thanks to the attractive topics tailored to the industry. “In the hospitality industry, new technologies, solutions, automation, digitisation and even robotisation of workplaces, particularly sales and service processes, are currently at the top of the agenda, as well as the real prospects of obtaining subsidies for such investments. Entrepreneurs are also interested in new developments in promotion, mainly on social media”, comments Piotr Tabor from the training company HOTELE PLUS. The fair’s three-day programme included training courses addressing the most interesting and current topics for the industry, as well as practical workshops, such as on social media promotion. The unique MasterClass wine tastings were an added value of the fair. “It was the first time that I gave a lecture to such a large group, so I was very pleased. The group was very diverse; people were interested in new things and very open-minded. There were a lot of questions and exchanges of ideas, so I think this kind of fair is great. I have been here before. For me, wine is always about people; there is a human being behind every wine. Here there are thousands of people who have come to exchange experiences and contacts. A trade fair like this can only help the industry in general ” comments Anastazja Levadna, who led the MasterClass tasting named “Beaujolais is not just Nouveau”. Participants in the fair were also satisfied with the meetings: “We are here at ENOEXPO® for the first time and certainly the training courses are a big plus for us. We were able to learn something about very interesting topics, both marketing and on the subject of wine. This is certainly an added value of the fair. (...) During the event, we made new contacts, met wonderful people – you could even say we made friends, which is not surprising, because winemakers share a kind of mental bond: common traits that unite people with unusual interests,” emphasised Paweł and Agata from the Nowy Młyn Winery.

The 20th ENOEXPO® Trade Fair - meetings, relationships, business

Presentations of wines from, among others: Austria, France, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, Hungary and Italy, meetings and workshops conducted by well-known experts, MasterClass tastings and the award ceremony of the prestigious ENOEXPO® Medal Wine Competitions, thousands of business cards exchanged and a unique atmosphere – this is how the 20th ENOEXPO® International Wine Trade Fair in Krakow, held concurrently with the HORECA® and GASTROFOOD trade fairs, can be summarised in a nutshell.

Success begins with meetings!

According to exhibitors, participation in the ENOEXPO® trade fair allows them to achieve both business and image goals. “This is our first time at the ENOEXPO® trade fair and the atmosphere is great. What’s very cool is that we’re able to do two types of business at the same time, which is to sell our products, showcase them and also find potential suppliers from regions that are hard to find at larger trade fairs. (…) With our presence at ENOEXPO®, we first and foremost wanted to show that MV Group Distribution is no longer just a producer and supplier of vodka and spirits, but that we are also growing in the area of wine. It is an excellent place for networking. Networking works great here, so I think the final effect will be significant for us,” concluded Patryk Tyszkowski of MV Group Distribution Polska.

The trade fair is also an excellent opportunity to find out about customers’ needs and expectations. The face-to-face relationships established at the event are a huge advantage that trade fairs have over online sales. It is here, tasting wines, assessing their appearance and bouquet, that experiences can be exchanged and contacts made that are likely to bear fruit in the future. “We attend the ENOEXPO® trade fair regularly. We return every year because participating in the event is a big promotion of our products for us. In addition, here we can find out consumers’ opinions – whether they like the wines – and we can learn about trends and developments in the wine industry. I think it is an interesting experience for winemakers to see what customers expect from this other side. This year we are presenting wines from the Shabo winery, well-known in Ukraine but also already available thanks to us in Poland. What I will certainly remember from these three days is the very high level of interest in our stand. This is a great surprise because I see more and more people coming to the fair every year. These are the people who know wine and ask very specific questions,” concluded Sabina Ulatowska-Chmura, Convenience Foods Sp. z o.o.

The fact that there is value in talking is well known to those attending the fair. The opportunity to meet so many producers, distributors, owners and managers of catering establishments in one place and time is a unique opportunity to establish new business relationships. Another great advantage of the fair is that it takes place in Krakow, one of the most popular tourist and business destinations in Europe. “This is the first time we have exhibited at a trade fair abroad and we are very satisfied with our participation at ENOEXPO®. My husband and I run a company in Italy, we are producers and distributors of the 900 wine brand – these are sparkling wines, including prosecco, and we are keen to develop the brand in Poland. We chose Krakow above all because I come from the area and I know that we already have many fans of our products here. Our stand has been very popular. We definitely need to bring more wines next year because people are very curious about them,” stressed Karolina Filoniuk-Leonardi.

 

The HORECA® and ENOEXPO® trade fairs show that, despite many obstacles and difficulties, both the HoReCa and wine industries are constantly developing in Poland by focusing on new solutions and tried-and-tested activities. So the Organisers are not slowing down – indeed they invite you to EXPO Krakow for the new opening of the HORECA® and ENOEXPO® trade fairs on 6-8 November 2024.