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05.02.2014 Report: PIKO at the International Toy Fair 2014 in Nürnberg, Germany
As in the years past, PIKO Spielwaren GmbH took part in the International Toy Fair in Nürnberg, Germany from January 29 through February 3. According to Toy Fair officials, 76,000 trade visitors from 112 countries visited the Toy Fair. This is an increase of 5% over last year. According to the official press release, the product categories Baby and Infant Articles, Carnival, Festive Articles, Fireworks, and Model Railroads and Accessories experienced a particularly strong upswing.
We at PIKO are delighted to see Model Railroads again received a positive mention. Correspondingly, we had strong positive discussions with those German retailers that visited the Toy Fair. That said, we did not notice the claimed increase in visitor numbers. Especially during the first and last two days, the attendance in the model railways hall seemed modest. That’s an example of how subjective impressions can differ from official counts.
Another positive were the discussions we had with our numerous international business partners that again visited the Toy Fair.
We at PIKO will need to evaluate whether our quite expensive presence at the International Toy Fair in Nürnberg should be scaled back in favor of an increased presence at some of the more consumer-focused events. The upcoming Fairs in Sinsheim, Dortmund, Leipzig, and Köln, to mention just a few, provide us with better opportunities to engage with model railroad enthusiasts and to present our new items. The world is ever changing, and we too will have to adapt our marketing strategy.
We will discuss this internally throughout the year to determine what changes we will make.
The year 2014 is off to a great start. Our new items for all scales were very well received by our customers. As a result, we experienced a 20% year-over-year increase in orders in January. We want to say a big thanks to our customers for that!
Going forward we will focus on delivering all the new items in the quality and with the timeliness to which PIKO customers have become accustomed.
Happy model railroading with PIKO!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. René F. Wilfer
Sonneberg, 03.02.2014
PIKO booth at the International Toy Fair in Nürnberg, Germany
Jens Beyer, sales manager for Germany, talks with Wim Wolters, who is responsible for sales in the Netherlands, and Ina Golz who is, among other things, responsible for PIKO’s web presence (from left to right).
The PIKO Info Counter crew:
Anne-Katrin Leimert, in sales, is responsible for organizing PIKO’s presence at the Toy Fair; Denise Lämmerhirt, first year trainee; and Uta Grobe from the distributor Grobe. Grobe is responsible for all retailers in the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia
Dr. René F. Wilfer and PIKO’s Polish distributor, Zbigniew Kownacki, are pleased that the SM 42 diesel locomotive was named Model of the Year by the Polish magazine Swiat Kolei.
Ortrun D. Wilfer and Dr. René F. Wilfer presented the PIKO Car of the Year 2014 to the mayor of Sonneberg, Sibylle Abel, who paid PIKO the traditional visit.
While Dr. René F. Wilfer talks with the mayor of Sonneberg, the mayor of Neustadt/Coburg visits the PIKO booth as well. All three pose for a picture.
The Mayor of Rödental Gerhard Preß and his wife visit the PIKO booth. There they meet Christina Zitzmann (center), the head of the district of Sonneberg, and Mike Stieler, the manager of the savings bank Sparkasse. Ortrun D. Wilfer and Dr. René F. Wilfer present each of them with a Car of the Year 2014. 
Micheal Busch, the head of the district of Coburg, visits the PIKO booth and is delighted to receive a Car of the Year from Mr. and Ms. Wilfer.
Jens-Uwe Köhler of tt-board presents Dr. René Wilfer the Model of the Year 2013 award for PIKO’s V15/V23 diesel locomotive.