Strong sales at Oslo boat show
By IBI Magazine/Lars-Åke Redéen
The Norwegian International Boat Show, which ran from March 16-25 in Oslo, faced a small decline in visitor numbers this year to just 56,955 people.
"In all we saw a small decline in numbers of visitors by 3.6 per cent, but we think that's mainly due to the exceptional good spring weather we had during the last exhibition days," says Aud Høva, project manager at the Oslo show.
Nevertheless, almost 700 boats were sold during the 10-day event, making it one of the strongest shows ever. Market director Arne Skibsrud at Skibsplast says his company made a new sales record at the show. "During 2006 we had a record counted in turnover, but not in numbers of boats sold. This year we've made new records on both these grounds, with an all-time high in turnover and we've sold 11 more boats than last year, which makes a total of 43 boats during the show. What's more, we've sold 15 of our new 555VS, a special version to mark our 50 years celebration as a company in 2007. We're very satisfied with the show, which makes a good kick-off for the 2007 boating season."
Lunde Båt, Norwegian importer of Bavaria and several other brands, also experienced a strong show. "We're more than satisfied," says May Len Stensaker, owner of Lunde Båt. "We're 10 per cent over our own target in numbers of contacts made at the show and much over that counted in money made of boat sales. Especially the new Bavaria Vision series made a very good result at the same time as the Bavaria Cruiser series keep on selling very well."
"This has been a super show for us," says Leif Bergaas, marketing manager at Askeladden. "Our dealers working in our stand early said that our bigger boats in the Z and Commuter series sold very good. From the factory we can't deliver these boats until late autumn 2007 if we can't find any unsold boats at our local dealers. The smaller boats have also done very well with bestsellers like 475 Freestyle, 525 Excel and 605 Explorer. There's no doubt this has been our best show money-wise - ever."
The next boat show to be held in Norway will be the Båter i sjøen, also known as the Norwegian International In-Water Boat Show, which runs from September 6-9 in Sandvika.
(28 March 2007)
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