News Article

8th May 2012

Decorex CT draws huge crowds

The KSA and many of their Western Cape members enjoyed a successful Decorex exhibition at the CTICC from between the 26 and 29th May. Participating members included Furnspace, BSH, Smeg, Whirlpool, Niemann SA, Caesarstone, Italian Lifestyle, Sembel-it, Franke and WOMAG. The show saw 40 000 visitors over the four days with Thursday and Friday delivering a good trade showing with plenty of architects, interior designers and developers.

To quote Trevor King of Caesarstone: “DECOREX Cape Town was an outstanding success for Caesarstone. The people just kept on coming – at one time I counted 34 people on the Caesarstone stand! What we love about DECOREX Cape Town is that it attracts the right target market for our brand. We found that many of the people who visited us were either building or redesigning their kitchens and very open to new ideas and advice. The success of DECOREX Cape Town is in my opinion, the result of an excellent marketing campaign and the outstanding, professional and efficient organisation on the part of the DECOREX team who made it all happen. My congratulations to them all!”.

The show hosted the first collaboration between the KSA and Furnspace’s KDMax. The stand was abuzz with competition entrants testing their design talents on the new software. Homemaker’s expo will see the second phase of this competition where design students will be invited to test their skills. Furnspace hope to take the competition to Gauteng and Kwa Zulu Natal in 2013. A huge thank you to the co-sponsors of the competition: Grass, Smeg, Caesarstone, WOMAG, Lansdowneboards, Franke, Plantation Shutters, Plascon, Rhoms Timberworld and Essential IT Solutions. This collaborative stand wond the 'best interactive stand' award.

The show was marred, however, by the visible lack of kitchen exhibits. There was a lot of public interest in kitchens at the show and the visitors were openly disappointed to see only one kitchen company exhibiting. From the feedback received by the KSA at the show the lack of visibility from the industry was cause for concern among the public as to the stability of the industry. The KSA would encourage kitchen members to relook at exhibiting at shows as the exposure not only strengthens your brand exposure but also instils confidence in the industry.

Decorex will be launching their 2013 show before the end of July and KSA members should keep their eyes open for the special offers open to them.