(Telestock) – Trust – Italian Automatic Distribution Associationhas chosen Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), as a strategic partner for the development of the fair “Saleslia”, the main event in the vending sector in Europe: a new company will be born that will organize the next editions of Venditalia in Rimini and will take care of both its product and international development. From spring 2026 Venditalia will therefore be held in the pavilions of the Rimini Fair.
With theagreement signed by Italian Exhibition Group and Venditalia, represented by the President of the event Ernesto Piloni and with the unanimous approval of the fair’s board of directors and the CONFIDA Assembly, the process for the constitution by the autumn of a NewCo has been started, 51% owned by IEG and 49% by Confida, which starting from 2026 will organize, again on a biennial basis, in the pavilions of the Rimini Fair “Venditalia – The Vending Expo”, the main international exhibition of vending, the sector that deals with the automatic distribution of food, drinks and a growing number of products.
Born in 1998 in Genoa“Venditalia” has continued to grow and attract more and more professionals in the sector. In 2004 it received the qualification of “international” event and this year, having reached its thirteenth edition, it has obtained significant numbers: 32 thousand square meters of exhibition space, 300 exhibitors (40% of which international, mainly from France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and 22,300 professional visitors. Venditalia, in addition to presenting the widest range of automatic distribution machines, products and services for vending, is also enriched by a program of meetings and conferences that examine the main challenges and opportunities of the sector.
Results and prominence also supported by the fact that Italy is the European leader in the automatic distribution sector: the sector, which in 2023 recorded an overall turnover of 2 billion euros (automatic distribution and OCS) and 5 billion consumptions, generates employment for over 33 thousand people, includes more than 3 thousand companies and sees, in the territory, over 830 thousand vending machines installed (the largest machine park in Europe). To these numbers we must add other companies that intervene in the supply chain such as food producers and manufacturers of accessories and technologies. Precisely for the latter, Italy is an excellence: 70% of the machines produced are exported as well as many accessories used in vending machines.
“We are very satisfied with this agreement – comments the President of IEG, Maurizio Hermes – which will allow us to bring a new international event to Rimini, the most important in Europe in its sector. And we are proud that CONFIDA, an association linked to the world of Confcommercio and a leader in the sector, has appreciated our expertise as trade fair organisers in choosing the strategic partner with which to give continuity and a further opportunity for development to an event that is already a leader in the sector. The choice of IEG aims, in fact, to further develop “Venditalia – The Vending Expo” both nationally and internationally. To this end, a working group of people from IEG will be committed to supporting the event’s historic team in order to put in place, starting from the 2026 edition, a series of elements of evolution and innovation through development both in the product sector and in internationalisation”.
“After several years of success and development – comments Ernest PylonsPresident of Venditalia – we stopped to think and with the firm will to continue to grow Venditalia, we looked for a new partner to work with, and IEG turned out to be the best possible choice, for the strategic prospects offered. The synergy that has been created between us will be fundamental to continue to consolidate the importance of Venditalia in the markets that we already cover, such as Italy and Europe; but, in particular, it will be fundamental to debut in the future also in new international markets, thus giving even more visibility to the incredible technological and product innovations that the Italian and European vending sector offers.”
(Photo: Italian Exhibition Group)