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Venditalia will take place from May 21 to 24 in Milan, Italy. It is the biggest show in vending, both in the size of the exhibition area and in the number of exhibiting firms and visitors from all over the world, previewing their products, the most innovative technology and the latest discoveries in the sector.

This two-yearly exhibition first took place in Genoa in 1998, after 10 editions of MIDA, the first Mostra Italiana della Distribuzione Automatica (Italian Fair for Automatic Distribution), within Expo CT, that opened in 1979. Both of these initiatives were set up within CONFIDA, the Italian Association for Automatic Distribution. A synergy between trade fair event and association activity has guaranteed maximum participation of firms within the sector. Over the years the event has been increasingly successful both with exhibitors and the public, so much that in 2004 the initiative gained significant recognition as an international fair. This year too, many foreign firms have confirmed their participation. So far around 12 percent of exhibitors have confirmed their participation. By May, a further increase in this figure is expected.

“Venditalia has become the reference point for world production of automatic distributors. – said Sergio Pieralisi, Venditalia president, “In fact, over the years it has managed to transform from a showroom for national production to a real meeting point between global supply and demand. The rate of growth of foreign operators is in fact increasing due to the fact that Italian industry has managed to first establish then defend world leadership in the production of distributing machines since the sixties with the introduction of the first expresso coffee machines.”

The quantity and type of distributors on the market has also increased considerably in recent years, ranging from classic distributors of hot and cold drinks and snacks to distributors of bouquets of flowers, books, mobile phones and open source software.

In the area for the refreshments sector, participants include manufacturers of automatic distributing machines, payment systems and accessories, and of vending products, and management and service companies. In the last exhibition, which took up 20,000 square meters of exhibition space, 256 exhibitors participated.

Not only Italian firms are to participate, but also from the whole of Europe, as well as the U.S. and Japan. Foreign exhibitors at the last fair showed a positive increase in their presence, primarily from Germany, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, France, Holland, USA; then Austria, Canada, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands. The Czech Republic, San Marino, Switzerland.

There were 10,000 visitors from all over the world; foreign visitors were mostly from, in order: France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Portugal, then Croatia, Great Britain, Slovenia, Austria and Greece, to mention just the first 10 countries.

For information, go to www.mirandola.net.