The MeetUp 2019 is over, we had four very intense days of interesting meetings with customers. During the fair, our well-stocked warehouse with some ‘provocative’ new material could be visited.
Here are the first impressions regarding the Marmomac fair, directly from our CEO …
Giovanni, how do you rate this MeetUp 2019?
Overall, we have nothing to complain about, because our MeetUp was well attended. My personal impression is that, compared to the previous year 2018, we could barely sense any ‘enthusiasm’, although our customers seemed very interested in the materials, they didn’t want to buy them immediately. Of course it is too early for an accurate analysis, exact numbers will arrive at the end of this month.
All in all, the feedback was very positive. Particularly pleased about the nice compliments from the guests, who visited our company for the very first time, we received praises regarding the company building, our organization and our helpfulness. I’m very happy about all these excellent impressions, especially about the praise for our availability. As I always say, Marmi Rossi is not just a company, but rather a big family where not only our employees are allowed to feel at home, but also our customers.
With our well-tried bestsellers we achieved good sale results, whereas the interest in the grey coloured materials was really unexpected, our customers liked both the lighter and the darker types. Among the new materials, here the three surprising types: Black Ice, Avocatus and Donatello.
This year 2019 started very positively, came then to a halt during summer and has not recovered yet…
Let’s talk about the market situation: Giovanni, do you agree, that the market uncertainty is the reason for negative trend?
We live in a time of great changes where fundamental decisions have yet to be made or finalized. Of course, this affects the market situation, instead of taking risky decisions, you rather wait and watch the future developments.
During the fair, I had the chance to meet and talk to many customers, mostly from abroad, and I realised that all the comments and impressions can be summed up in one word: uncertainty!
This uncertainty you can sense in the market situation in Germany, where many companies recently have pulled the handbrake. Especially the sales in the car industry have deteriorated significantly and that affects the whole economy: Electric motor yes or no? Diesel yes or no? Hydrogen power? Natural gas? LPG? ... it’s all very confusing
To compensate at least partially this negative trend, it is often discussed, whether to reduce the working hours, indeed, some companies have already decided to take over part-time work.
The English market situation is also uncertain, for several months the Damocles sword of Brexit has been hovering over the country: all out or all in? The long wait is tiring and most market participants would prefer a clear decision, even if that meant to give up a lot. At this moment, the import/export market is on a hold, because everyone is waiting to see what will happen next.
The uncertainty and the concerns about the implications from President Trump’s custom policy put a stop to exports and keep the expected upswing far away.
Finally, I’d like to refer to the uncertain Italian market, as the current political situation in Italy cannot guarantee stability in Europe.
In the next months, we’ll receive the first answers.
Let‘s wait and see...
Click here to see the photos of MeetUP 2019
The topic BLACK&WHITE...
The ever-popular Black&White topic has encouraged us to return where it all began: to the beauty and simplicity of black and white.
During the Stone Night, this topic allowed us to show our warehouse as probably never seen before: as a big festive hall, where the main actors were formed by the various materials together with our guests, while the colours danced in the artistically designed background of Black&White...
