Records set at IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin

Sep 5, 2007, 13:23 GMT

Berlin - The IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin has scored a record in terms of visitors and orders signed, organizers said Wednesday as the six-day event came to an end.

The count at the turnstiles was 235,000 visitors, while European importers and wholesalers placed orders worth 2.6 billion euros (3.5 billion dollars) at the show.

GFU, the German consumer-electronics association which hosts the annual show, and the Messe Berlin fairgrounds company said IFA had significantly beaten the already high expectations before the event.

Orders were up about 10 per cent from one year ago, in what a GFU chief, Joachim Kamp, described as a reflection of the rosy consumer climate in Germany currently.

Messe Berlin said the gate also marked a gain of 10 per cent compared to a year ago.

The public is welcome at the fair, which boosts shopper enthusiasm for the newest digital gadgets as the Christmas shopping season nears.

Some 1,212 exhibitors, 733 of them from 31 nations outside Germany, showed off flat-panel televisions, movie players, pocket music systems, camcorders, mobile phones and personal digital assistants.

Next year's IFA is to take place August 29 to September 3.

The Berlin event rivals the annual consumer-electronics shows in Las Vegas and Tokyo in importance, and has also taken some business away from the annual CeBIT computer show held in the German city of Hanover every March.

GFU chairman Rainer Hecker, who heads German television manufacturer Loewe, said there was a trend among German consumers away from the cheap toward quality products.