How's business? Exhibitors say pretty good

Our reporters have been asking exhibitors at K 2010 how business is this year, and about their outlook for 2011, and so far the responses have been pretty positive. A common refrain is that sales and profit suffered starting in the fourth quarter of 2008. Last year -- 2009 -- was pretty bad everywhere, and many companies cut costs and sharpened their focus. This year has been pretty good. Many companies are reporting double-digit increases in sales, and I'm regularly hearing that their sales and profits are back to 2008 levels. Rene Bertschi, managing director at Gammaflux's office in Wiesbaden, Germany, provided me with some excellent perspective on the situation this morning. Bertschi has been coming to K shows since the early 1970s, so he's seen his share of ups and downs in the economy. "When you look around, all the halls are full. No one has panicked," he said. "Already in the first day of the show, we had visitors from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and South America. And that's a good sign of the quality of the K show." As usual, despite the economic downturn in 2008-09, K is filled with new products and innovative technology. That will probably never change.