ST. LOUIS -- Change may be in store for the Food Marketing Institute's General Merchandise/ Health and Beauty Care Conference, following a decline in attendance at this year's edition, Sept. 25 to 27.
Total show attendance, including retailers, exhibitors and suppliers, was 1,960, according to early figures from FMI. Last year's show drew 2,814. FMI attributed the drop in attendance to its efforts to scale back the show's size by limiting the number of exhibitors, which fell from 365 last year to 254 this year, a 30% decline.
In reaction to these figures and the sparse traffic on the 48,000-square-foot show floor, members of the conference's educational planning committee said they would meet immediately after the conference to discuss ways to resuscitate it for 1995.
"There have been conversations about just making this an educational show. We don't know the answer," said Bill Marter, co-chairman of this year's educational planning committee for the conference and also sales vice president of trade development at Ambassador Cards, Kansas City, Mo. "There is strong concern from all of us [about the show's future]. There is no question about that. Retail attendance is very important to its success."
Committee member Leon Galitzin, senior vice president of strategic business development at Confab, Wayne, Pa., said he expected the 1995 conference would have a much different look. He suggested FMI should take a "secular" approach and open the conference up to all classes of
trade, including mass merchandisers, and added that is one option that will likely be discussed by the committee.
W. Scott Roberts, another committee member and vice president of business relations at the North American division of Gillette, Boston, said he, too, was concerned by the small number of retailers on the FMI exhibit floor. While he was not specific as to the possible changes in store for the conference, he did confirm the show's future would be mulled over by the educational planning committee.
The light sprinkling of retailers with their red FMI badges seemed to be a source of worry or ennui for many exhibitors, but attending food store executives said they used the manufacturers' idle time to their advantage, covering the bulk of their major concerns.
One retailer from a large Midwestern chain who wished to remain anonymous, however, said he was concerned that the FMI GM/HBC show, which is co-sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, is drawing fewer top executives from manufacturing companies each year.
"We come here to sit down and work out problems with major manufacturers," he said. "This is the one opportunity food retailers have to see these people [without other classes of trade]. I can see my regional reps on a regular basis. We need to see the top-level people from the major manufacturers to really work out issues at this show. That's what makes the [FMI GM/HBC Conference] worth attending."
Conversely, it was the lack of major retailers at the show that most troubled exhibitors who spoke to SN.
Win Gurney, Eastern division manager of health and beauty at Chesebrough-Pond's USA, Greenwich, Conn., described the activity on the exhibit floor as "somewhere between a snail's pace and going uphill with a peanut," on Sunday, the show's opening day. But he, and many other show attendants, applauded the conference for its educational programs and opportunities for relationship-building.
"If this show went away, I don't know where we'd see the major food retailers," Gurney said. "Plus, at this show, we get to meet a lot of the secondary retailers we don't get to see on a regular basis."
Garret Foute, vice president of purchasing at Millbrook Distribution Services, Harrison, Ark., said, "FMI is a good organization and this show has a lot of training." He added the show also provided him with an opportunity to "look for things to spice up assortments and selection and enhance our offerings to customers -- get Mrs. Consumer to buy more products."
Jim Paterni, Glen's Markets, Gaylord, Mich., said he came to this year's show to "find exciting in-and-out" promotions and to roam the show floor.
One manufacturer, though, said he felt some of the show's problems were created by those in attendance.
"The [FMI GM/HBC Conference] has been a very viable show for us for the past five years," said Brad Trucksis, a member of the conference's educational planning committee and manager of customer business development at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati. "But you have to put a lot of work into it. Some vendors think they can throw up their sign and everybody will stop by. But you have to foster contacts before the show begins. You reap what you sow."
