Trade fair logistics for your trade fair appearance
When it comes to ensuring that goods, promotional materials, and booth equipment arrive at the trade fair venue on time, trade fair logistics determine how smoothly the first few hours of the fair will go. Futura Marketing takes care of the logistical aspects of your trade fair participation: warehousing, packaging, order picking, and on-time delivery. Since 1993, we have been operating from Kisslegg in the Allgäu region, with over 3.000 square meters of heated warehouse space and a team that has worked together seamlessly for many years.
Your trade fair goods are stored with us between events, ensuring dry and accurate inventory. Before the next trade fair, we compile the final shipment to guarantee it arrives at the right place at the right time. This applies to individual in-house exhibitions as well as entire seasons with recurring events.
If you attend several trade fairs and events throughout the year, the actual effort quickly shifts: it's not in the transport itself, but in the planning and coordination surrounding it. This is precisely the part you outsource.
What our trade fair handling covers
Our trade fair handling service begins in the warehouse and ends at the loading dock of the exhibition hall. We store your goods, assemble them according to your packing list, label them, and ship them: within Germany, to neighboring Austria, Switzerland, and to international trade fairs. The setup at the exhibition stand remains with your stand builder or agency; we reliably transport the materials to where they are needed.
What do we typically receive? Promotional materials, printed matter, catalogs, informational materials, giveaways and merchandising, as well as displays and roll-up banners. The logistics are handled by the same company that manages your campaign logistics or promotional material logistics . Because both are under one roof, there are no two systems, two points of contact, or two inventory lists.
As comprehensive or as narrow as you like: Some clients entrust us with their complete trade fair logistics, others only with the storage and shipping of printed materials. Both are trade fair logistics, just with different levels of detail.
Where printed materials are still in production, we utilize our in-house printing facility. As soon as the print run is complete, brochures, price lists, and package inserts go directly to the trade fair warehouse, bypassing your office.
Storage of stand components and exhibition stands between two dates
After the trade fair, the materials are returned – and then usually just get in the way. Disassembled exhibition stands, displays, and roll-up banners take up exactly the space that no one has to spare in the office anyway. Trade fair logistics therefore pays off most quickly when used for interim storage between events. For this purpose, we maintain a dry, year-round heated hall of over 3.000 square meters, where even sensitive printed materials won't be damaged.
The storage of stand components, exhibits, exhibition furniture, and promotional materials is handled through the same warehouse logistics as your other product range: with daily inventory management and notification as soon as a minimum quantity is reached. Before the next event, you can see what's still available and what needs to be reproduced. For exhibitors with multiple stands per year, we manage inventory separately to ensure that the packing list doesn't include materials from the wrong event.
For us, trade fair logistics also includes the return journey. It's best to plan the return transport right from the start – we'll sort out damaged or outdated items upon receipt instead of carrying them around for another year.
Trade fair transports with advance lead time instead of buffer time
Plan ahead, as it determines the price. The earlier your delivery is confirmed, the more cost-effective and smoother the process will be – last-minute special deliveries regularly cost significantly more. Therefore, we schedule trade fair transports backward from the organizer's delivery date. Trade fair logistics, in this context, is primarily about meeting deadlines.
This includes time slots, hall access, and whether someone is available to accept deliveries at the booth. We can deliver shipments in advance to a hotel, the exhibition center's warehouse, or directly to the exhibition grounds, depending on the organizer's regulations. For international shipments, we also prepare the customs documents.
The transport route itself is the least critical part. What's crucial is that the goods arrive at the vehicle complete and on time – a successful trade fair begins at the packing table, not on the motorway.
Our location in the border region of three countries is a real advantage: Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich, Basel, and Friedrichshafen are all within easy reach of Kisslegg. This saves you the detour via a central warehouse in northern Germany for trade fairs in Switzerland.
Where trade fair logistics goes wrong in practice
It's rarely the goods themselves that are the problem. A lack of coordination between marketing, stand builders, and shipping is the most frequent cause of delays , closely followed by the classic: unclear responsibilities shortly before setup day. As soon as nobody knows who ordered the roll-up banners, they end up in two boxes in two different locations.
Precise timing is only possible if one entity coordinates all shipments. That's exactly the role we fill: a packing list, a tracking number, a single point of contact. We handle last-minute changes as long as the goods haven't yet left our warehouse – an extra box of flyers is no problem if it's reported in time.
We pack everything by hand. A missing stack of brochures or a mixed-up promotional gift is therefore noticed in the warehouse, not just at the booth. This zero-tolerance policy is the reason why smooth processes at trade fairs become the norm for our customers – trade fair logistics without rework saves more time than any optimization of the freight route.
Realistically calculate trade fair logistics costs
What are the costs associated with trade fair logistics? Storage, handling, and transport. Planning becomes possible only with reliable figures on actual consumption per item – and that's precisely what our inventory management provides for your next budget planning.
Cost control also includes eliminating unnecessary items early on. A pallet space for brochures from the previous year costs 12 months' rent without ever being used. Therefore, check your inventory before the trade fair, not after – trade fair logistics won't be cheaper anywhere else.
We calculate additional requirements such as gift wrapping, personalization, or shrink-wrapping sets in advance and transparently – all done by hand and yet cost-effectively. We also accept small orders starting from 10 pieces , which makes all the difference, especially for samples and high-quality giveaways.
Comprehensively planned trade fair logistics therefore rarely pays off through the individual freight price, but rather through the journeys that are not necessary in the first place.
Outsourcing trade fair logistics: Trade fair and event logistics from a single source
Do you want to outsource your trade fair logistics while still maintaining control? Then you don't need a large corporation, but rather someone who answers the phone. With us, a dedicated contact person will manage your trade fair appearance from the very first packing list – even if the setup day falls on a Saturday.
As a trade fair logistics provider, we adapt to your existing IT systems instead of imposing a system on you. Goods without barcodes? No problem – we reliably pick and pack items according to article number or description. For transport to other European countries, we work with established shipping partners. When comparing several trade fair logistics providers, this is a crucial question: Who adapts to whom?
With years of experience in trade fair and event logistics, we know how different the requirements are between a multi-day trade fair and a one-day customer event. For events beyond the traditional trade fair format, you'll find our event logistics department as a separate division; we handle the assembly and packaging of your trade fair packages through our assembly department.
Well-planned trade fair logistics are characterized by their seamless integration. Send us your trade fair dates and packing list, and we'll calculate a full-service quote for your trade fair and event logistics – no obligation and with a clear focus on your specific needs. For national and international trade fair participation, we plan the event logistics so that your participation begins with setup, not with searching for a box. A successful trade fair involves many stakeholders – but it all starts with a reliably packed pallet.
