Global Pet Expo Breaks Records Across the Board

March 17, 2013

There’s no question that people love their pets, especially taking into account the record-breaking show numbers that recently were revealed for the American Pet Products Association’s  and the Pet Industry Distributors Association’s Global Pet Expo 2013.

The show, held Feb. 20-22 at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, attracted 5,327 buyers, a 5-percent increase, compared with last year.

There also more than 3,000 new pet product launches, 964 exhibitors and 2,686 booths sold – the highest post-show numbers reported in Global Pet Expo’s nine-year history, according to show management.

The pet industry itself is going gangbusters with record-breaking numbers and results from APPA’s latest Survey showing pet ownership is at an all-time high.

“There’s no arguing that this industry continues to grow and there’s certainly no better place than at Global Pet Expo for exhibitors to showcase their products and give thousands of buyers from around the world a first look,” said Andrew Darmohraj, APPA senior vice president and trade show director.

He added, “We’d truly like to thank all the buyers, exhibitors and media who participated in this year’s show making this our largest event to date.”

The show also featured more product launches than it’s ever had before, with 900 entries into the New Products Showcase alone.

“The 3,000 new product launches at this year’s show included advances in technology, like self-cleaning fish tanks and pet doors you can control from your smart phone, as well as advances in enrichment products from tennis ball cannons to ice cube vitamin supplement kits,” Darmohraj said.

He added, “Whether you’ve been in this industry for years and have dozens of products or you are just starting out with a single product launch, Global Pet Expo is a must attend event.”

One key reason for the growth was there was a strong international presence. On the showfloor, there were 172 international exhibitors, up from 145 in 2012. In addition, 27 percent of the attendees were international buyers that represented 71 countries.

Social media also played a big role in driving awareness before, during and after the event. There were 4,300 tweets about Global Pet Expo, generating over 13.5 million impressions. The Global Pet Expo Twitter page has grown 38 percent and the Facebook page has grown 36 percent, both in the past year.

Global Pet Expo’s YouTube channel has shown the biggest increase, with more than 29,000 views, up 58 percent from the 2012 show.

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