Yvonne Engelmann (pictured) is the Director of Living, Giving, and Working at Ambiente in Frankfurt, the leading international trade fair for the consumer goods industry and for commercial furnishings and fittings, and responsible for interiors, decoration, gifts, and office design equipment.
— Buyers can come to shop and order for the core assortment, and discover new things to make their offering unique, for their additional assortment, to help them differentiate from their competitors, she says.
Differentiate ow?
— Our exhibitors are coming from all over the world, which gives a good overview of the entire international market and enables them to select. They find not only products but also solutions and content to create an even more successful business. For instance, the Ambiente Trends 25+ presentation shares the key trends for the upcoming season. It’s researched and curated by the trend bureau stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano who decorates the presentation with outstanding products. Every product is also signed with the name of the company and where to find it in the show, which gives good orientation and guidance for the visitors. The three key trends are Deep, Real, and Ease — ranging from light to colourful, joyful, and unconventional, to dark — and for all of them, sustainability and material are important. The most important one, though, is well-being.
Yes, well-being taking over every industry is a sign of the times. Can you explain more?
— It’s about having the right natural materials. Wood, of course, and stone and ceramics, wickerwork are coming back, and we see natural fibres also for room textiles and gift articles. It’s also about creating the right environments where you feel good, and have flexible rooms and environments to live in, but also to work in, in a healthy environment. It’s a huge topic. You see it in the trend exhibition and the exhibitors across all product categories developing products to meet the trend. Even in the kitchen segment — cooking can also be well-being! Cooking and food have become a lifestyle, and so has eating. The international exhibitors are picking up on everything from the choice of structure, material, and colour of a plate, which contributes to how the food tastes, and how you feel when you eat it.
How do you work with sustainability?
— It’s a growing offer at the fair over the years, and the trend is pensable. Every exhibitor has the opportunity to apply for our Ethical Style programme. We have a jury of experts who check the registrations against the criteria to be a part of it. This year at Ambiente, we had over 300 companies with sustainable products and production processes. I’m quite sure that next year, it’ll be even more, throughout all the shows, including the Global Sourcing halls where producers are coming from Asia, Africa, and South America to find new products.
— Buyers looking to make their ranges more sustainable can find participating exhibitors using the Ethical Style label on the stand and in the online exhibitor search. In addition, visitors may find inspiration for a sustainable point of sale at two curated product stages, the Ethical Style Spots, which showcase pieces from selected exhibitors in a promotional way. One of these spots can be found in Galleria 0 on the exhibition grounds, and the other in the foyer of Hall 3.VIA.
Your owner, Messe Frankfurt, also continuously points out working with sustainability as a business opportunity.
— It’s a great business opportunity. The consumer wants to live healthy, consume healthy and as sustainable as possible, and eat healthy. Raising awareness of this is becoming a big societal topic. People are looking more and more at how the product has been produced, what materials are used and the carbon footprint of each product. So, it really influences as a buying decision and therefore it’s an absolute must for the industry to meet this quest.
What other highlights do you want to share for Ambiente 2025?
— The Lounge is the centrepiece of our hospitality area, created by our Ambiente Designer 2025, Fabian Freytag, showing exciting, future-oriented hospitality spaces that connect hospitality, contract business, and interior design, Engelmann shares, continuing,
— We have the Talent area for young international design talents and their creations. It’s a promotional area, so international young designers can apply for the program and the selected designers get a booth free of charge. It’s an outstanding opportunity to get in contact with the international industry, the press, and others, and it’s always a highlight for the visitors and buyers to put in their assortment making it more special and different.
What’s the main reason for an exhibitor to join Ambiente?
— To find new clients. Everyone needs to find new clients and a new business, especially nowadays when the market is challenged. At Ambiente, they do, with all our different sectors and distribution channels. They can find clients across the retail sectors, in the hospitality, dining, and interior industries, and alongside Ambiente, we are organising Christmasworld and Creativeworld simultaneously, which creates links in between and overlapping synergies.
And for a visitor, what are the main reasons to come?
— Most of the buyers have a core assortment and go to a certain hall at Ambiente to find stuff for that. They then start discovering things in other halls and can take also unexpected things into the assortment to make their offer unique.
— We also give them a lot of support. Our Academy Lecture programme provides insights from experts about the future of retail and hospitality, and ideas on how to develop their retail shop and online channel, so it’s big benefits for the buyers.
— And, as we all know, for a good well-being assortment, inspiration and face-to-face networking are kings, which our huge event calendar offers.
Lastly, what other macro trends are you curious about now?
— Finding flexible solutions, for example in the interior sector, making sure that a room can have different functions, and that you, for this, also use furniture and solutions that can change the room and the functions of the room, Engelmann says. She adds:
— And, as the challenges in the market continue, networking is the buzzword of the moment, together with the subject of digital transformation and sustainability. These topics will continue to develop and move the world of consumer goods.
