It started off as a regional exhibition then developed into France’s national timber trade show. Now the Carrefour International du Bois (CIB), as its name suggests, is very much a global event.
The last time out in 2022, the biennial exhibition further cemented its international status. Foreign visitors made up 39% of the total, compared with 29% in 2018. What is more, they came from 89 countries around the world. The mix of exhibitors is also increasingly cosmopolitan. Companies from abroad occupied 37% of the stands in 2022 and they were drawn from 40 countries.
“The Carrefour is undoubtedly Europe’s premier international timber event,” said one exhibitor in 2022. “If you want to keep up with the news and new developments from around the timber world, it’s the place to be. And the number of product launches at the show increases every time.”
The last exhibition, which followed a four-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, also grew significantly. Exhibitor numbers were up 7.8% on 2018, hitting a record 607, while visitor numbers increased even more impressively, up 20% to 14,000.
Following this jump, the CIB next year is reconfiguring its layout at the Parc Beaujoire exhibition complex in Nantes.
“In 2022 we filled five halls, and these were really fully booked,” said CIB international business executive Samantha Padden. “In 2024 we will be opening up the new hall XXL which is two times the size of Hall 4, giving us the possibility to expand and for exhibitors and visitors to be able to be more comfortable. This will mean that we will probably close a few of the old halls.”
Given the size of the CIB now, she added, and in response to visitor feedback, it will also for the first time be organised according to industry and product sectors.
“We will be dividing the show into broad themes; forest, sawn timber, panels, parquet/ flooring, construction and other services,” said Ms Padden.
The area of the show focused on timber building and timber building products and systems, previously the Timber Techniques and Solutions Area, will become the show’s Construction section. “It is early days and we cannot confirm this yet, but there is a chance that this part of the show may also grow,” said Ms Padden.
Importantly, the CIB will also move from its traditional Wednesday to Friday time slot, to Tuesday to Thursday, May 28-30, 2024.
One thing that won’t change about CIB, however, is its exclusive focus on timber and wood products. This, it feels, is key to its success, giving exhibitors the assurance that visitors will be interested in their products with no distractions from associated or ancillary industry areas, and giving visitors the confidence that it will be an undiluted timber experience.
Besides individual stands next year, there will also be national pavilions grouping exhibitors from particular countries.
“We haven’t contacted prospects for collective stands yet, but we have already received requests from our historic participants – Estonia, the Spanish Basque region and Portugal,” said Ms Padden. “We will, of course, have the French regional stands as well.”
As in the past, the CIB will be working with partners Promosalons, the not-forprofit agency which markets French trade shows internationally, to target marketing in particular countries.
“In 2022 we worked with the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal and Italy,” said Ms Padden. “This time we will be adding Morocco, Tunisia and the UK to the list of countries we will be targeting.”
The detail of the CIB’s popular conference programme has yet to be decided, but broad themes will be market analysis, notably an overview of the French market, new regulations impacting the timber sector, plus latest developments in timber construction.
A key development for French wood building is the RE2020 environmental regulation, which is aimed at shrinking construction’s carbon footprint. There has been a slight setback due to raw material price inflation, but more and more developers and social housing management companies are reported to be looking to wood to comply with the new rules.
RE2020 measures will modified every three years, with permissible construction carbon emission levels tightened with each change. So the benefit to timber of the regulation is expected to increase incrementally. And some developers are already working to RE2031 levels and using this as a selling point.
At the same time, with other building materials, notably concrete, promoting their environmental credentials, the wood industry realises there’s still work to be done to state timber’s environmental case and ensure it gains construction market share.
In the meantime, CIB stand booking is open now at www.timbershow.com and according to Ms Padden is proceeding well.
“There’s no deadline for bookings, but historically by the end of the year before the show, it is fully booked,” she said.
