MILAN, Italy – What will the layouts and formats of the venues of tomorrow look like? What is the professional hospitality industry asking for in terms of furniture and tableware today? What ideas are inspiring architects and designers who have chosen hospitality as their field of action? Visitors will find the answers to these questions at HostMilano (Fiera Milano, from 18 to 22 October 2019).
The leading event for HORECA will be revealing all the latest contract and tableware news from major world companies but also turnkey solutions designed for the professional hospitality industry.
With six months to go before opening, the event can already count on the presence of 50 countries, for a total of 1,653 companies, of which 949 (57.41 % of the total) are Italian and 704 (42.59 %) international.
Italian products are doing well but the Premium-Price segment is shrinking
The industry is very healthy in Italy and worldwide. This was recently confirmed by the Ulisse Information System, which reported a nearly 5% yearly increase of value in Euro over the past decade in the furniture and tableware sector.
Last year, the total world demand reached a new record, in excess of EUR 167 billion, and forecasts for 2019-2022 indicate an increase at the average rate of +4.4% per year in Euro.
However, the Premium-Price segments have started slackening over the past years. Although the high- and medium-to-high-end prices accounted for just over 15% of the world total in 2018, the medium-to-high-end range has slumped by about 5 points, while the high-end range has remained substantially stable (5.2%) over the past decade.
In terms of exports, China is firmly in first place in the world ranking. Italy is the fourth position with EUR 7.1 billion of sales in 2018 directed mainly towards France, the USA, Germany, China (on the rise), Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain.
More in detail, Italy is third in the furniture and décor sector (in which sales are mainly in the Premium-Price segments), fourth in glassware and crockery, seventh in knives and cutlery and out of the top ten in the home textiles sector.
The venues of tomorrow are green and welcoming
Sustainable, retro, colourful – and above all tailor-made. The rules for tableware and tabletops in the third millennium have flown out of the window. Now, projects are more and more often created as turnkey solutions with complete designed formats.
This is precisely what visitors will find at Hostmilano. The bars of the future, cool restaurants, do-it-yourself ice-cream parlours and pastry shops with the feel of a designer boutique are just some of the many solutions to choose from with a focus on furniture, tableware accessories, light designs and plating arrangements.
The latest trends speak of Tasteful Residences (using soft materials, intense nuances and clean lines), Quiet Surroundings (with the focus on sustainability, colours and materials inspired by the natural world) and Joyfilled Ambience (with prevalence of bright and cheerful colours, plenty of patterns and unexpected combinations).
Preparing for a comeback, after having been picked up again by many famous fashion brands, are brass and chrome fittings used in venue design to create a vintage style.
Increasingly more established is the green trend, where the presence of plants and vegetation in restaurants and hotels is accompanied by a “from the farm to the table” cooking philosophy. In addition to fighting food waste, accountable consumables and locally sourced ingredients, principles include open layouts using glass (or green colour) walls and furnishings made of natural materials.
Last but not least is the trend to make guests feel at home. With more and more venues designed to be experienced throughout the day, the furnishings need to be moved and for designers and architects the challenge is now to create a familiar environment with extensive use of warm and cosy materials.
Table setting customisation is as hot as ever. Conveying a unique, original image of a venue is the key to success, maybe also by picking made-to-measure collections. Although white is still predominant, many have turned to the rules of gastrophysics, that is of the science that investigates how colours and shape of a plate influence our perception of the food.
The SMART Label Host Innovation Award is back
Studios, architects and designers. Hostmilano for them means the opportunity to see the latest news from the most important world manufacturers up close together with the new trends that identify the most innovative products. The SMART Label Host Innovation Award is a competition organised by Fiera Milano and HostMilano, in partnership with POLI.Design (Milan Polytechnic Consortium) and sponsored by ADI (the Italian Association for Industrial Design). A pool of international experts will evaluate and choose the products, services and projects that stand out from all others in terms of functionality, technologies, environmental sustainability, ethics or social implications.
Innovation at Host 2019
The present meets the future. The packed programme of seminars, contests and insights makes Hostmilano the go-to appointment for everything related to professional hospitality, like FUTURBAR&Co – Hospitality: back to the futur(ism), for instance, a research project lead by Comufficio, in partnership with the Mussapi architecture firm and a group of companies involved in production, distribution and services on the international scene. To anticipate the hospitality trends of the next decades, they will make a realistic and demonstrative prototype of an architectural project that blends vintage and contemporary furniture, for an environmentally-sustainable, low-cost venue that does not skimp on innovation or technology.
Names from the Tableware segment already signed up for the 2019 edition of HostMilano include: Arcturus Group, Tognana, Alessi, Abert, Bormioli Luigi, Seltmann, Richard Ginori, Pinti Inox, Mepra, Rona, Libbey, Rivolta Carmignani, Vetrerie Riunite.
Names from the Furniture segment already signed up for the 2019 edition of HostMilano include: Pedrali, Calligaris, Nardi, Emu, Indel B, Vondom, Seletti, Kartell, Florim, Gaber, Scab, Infiniti.
For updates, go to www.host.fieramilano.it, @HostMilano, #Host2019.
