What Anuga FoodTec is, in two lines
Anuga FoodTec is the leading international trade fair for food and beverage production technology: the only event in the world that covers the full spectrum of food production, from processing to packaging, through to storage, food safety and digitalisation. It is held in Cologne every three years and is organised by Koelnmesse under the conceptual patronage of DLG. The 2024 edition brought together around 1,350 exhibitors (1,307 according to official figures) and roughly 40,000 professional visitors from more than 133 countries, across 118,000 m² of exhibition space.
Numbers of this scale conceal a simple operational fact: at Anuga FoodTec almost no purchase closes on the stand. A processing line, a packaging solution or an automation system are technical and budget decisions that mature in the weeks that follow, amid spec comparisons, tests and in-depth follow-up visits. That is why the number of contacts collected matters less, and the quality with which you record and re-engage them matters far more: whoever arrives the Monday after the fair with tidy, qualified records already in the CRM plays with an enormous advantage over whoever comes back with a stack of business cards to decipher.
What to exhibit, where to exhibit
Anuga FoodTec spreads across halls 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.1 of the Koelnmesse grounds, with North, East, South and West entrances. The 2024 edition organised its offering into seven thematic segments: Automation, Digitalisation, Environment & Energy, Food Packaging, Food Processing, Safety & Analytics, Science & Pioneering. The layout logic follows the food production chain: from processing machinery to end-of-line, from packaging to automation, through to the areas dedicated to analytics, safety and innovation (the definitive 2027 layout is published close to the event).
Position your stand in line with the segment you work in and the end market you want to target: a process-machinery builder next to the Food Processing flow, a packaging-solutions supplier in the Food Packaging area, a software and sensor provider in the Digitalisation or Safety & Analytics segments. A practical tip: in such a vast venue, visitors plan thematic routes via the map and the app’s matchmaking. Decide in advance the two or three keywords you want to be found under in the catalogue and in the app, and make sure your exhibitor profile contains them: most targeted traffic comes from there, not from passing footfall.
Visitor profile
Anuga FoodTec is a fair for industry insiders, and a strongly international one: the 2024 edition drew visitors from more than 133 countries. It is a technical audience that comes to evaluate suppliers and technologies, not to browse, with a significant share of senior profiles who hold spending power or strong decision-making influence. In practical terms, you can expect a mix along these lines:
- Food and beverage manufacturers (around 30-35%): technical buyers, R&D and production managers looking for machines, lines and processing solutions.
- Packaging and end-of-line managers (around 15-20%): focused on Food Packaging and end-of-line solutions.
- Process, automation and digitalisation engineers (around 15-20%): evaluating process control, robotics, sensors and software.
- Quality, food safety and sustainability managers (around 10-15%): a demanding audience on traceability, hygiene, analytics and energy efficiency.
- Ingredient and technology suppliers, plant distributors and integrators (the remaining share): they come for partnerships, supply and channel.
The operational consequence: most of those who step onto your stand hold a technical, decision-making role and have little time. The conversation goes straight to the use case, and it needs to be recorded while it’s still fresh, because over a day of dozens of contacts the details blur fast.
How to prepare in the 4 weeks before the event
Week -4: message audit
Review what you communicate, and to whom. With an international, multi-segment audience, a generic message (“solutions for food”) gets lost. Decide the two or three priority segments (e.g. Food Processing vs Food Packaging vs Digitalisation) and prepare a different opening line for each. Align your exhibitor profile in the catalogue and in the app to the same keywords: that’s where qualified traffic comes from.
Week -3: the stand operating playbook
Define who does what on the stand across the four days: shifts, roles (who greets, who qualifies, who runs the technical demo) and, above all, a single method for recording contacts. Establish that every useful conversation ends up in a structured record, not on a business card. This is the moment to activate a capture tool like Linkly and test it with the whole team, so that during the fair it’s already second nature.
Week -2: the 3-question qualification form
Reduce qualification to the essentials: three questions the team can ask naturally during the conversation. For Anuga FoodTec, these work well, for example: (1) role/function and type of company (food/beverage manufacturer, integrator, supplier); (2) what they are concretely looking for (processing machine, packaging line, automation, software, food safety solution); (3) timing and project stage (exploration, spec in progress, budget approved). Three quick answers are enough to separate the ready buyer from the casual visitor.
Week -1: CRM integration
Connect capture to the CRM before you leave, not after. The goal is for every contact collected on the stand to land directly in the CRM with the event tag, the qualification answers and a voice note from the team member recalling the context of the conversation. Run an end-to-end test with a dummy contact: scan, qualification, note, arrival in the CRM. If the flow holds up in the test, it holds up during peak hours too.
Is the official Anuga FoodTec app worth it?
Yes, and for navigation it’s worth using. The official Koelnmesse Anuga FoodTec App (iOS and Android) offers an exhibitor list, event programme, favourites and a hall map, plus the Koelnmesse Networking feature for matchmaking, with lead generation and exportable lead tracking. To find your way around the venue and connect with the right contacts, it’s a useful tool.
What the official app does not do is manage your leads as a company in the way your sales process needs. It doesn’t enrich them with company data, it doesn’t structure qualification with your questions, it doesn’t build the follow-up and it doesn’t hand you a tidy report for sales management; the tracking export is raw and still has to be reworked. On top of that, matchmaking and features change from edition to edition, so it’s not a foundation on which to build a repeatable method triennium after triennium. For that you need a capture system you own: with Linkly you scan the contact, record the qualification answers and a voice note, and everything arrives in the CRM already tagged by event, ready to be enriched and re-engaged. It’s exactly the piece the app doesn’t cover. Here’s how Linkly works.
What to do during the 4 days of the fair
Day 1 (Tuesday)
Opening and calibration. The flow starts strong, but the first day also serves to fine-tune the method: check that capture works, that the three qualification questions flow naturally and that records land in the CRM. Fix any friction right away, because you’ll be repeating it for another three days.
Day 2 (Wednesday)
The first full day and among the busiest. Traffic is high and many technical and R&D profiles arrive. Keep the pace on qualification: ten complete records beat thirty names without context. In the evening, kick off the first warm follow-ups to the most qualified contacts.
Day 3 (Thursday)
Often the decisive day: buyers with real projects and the most in-depth conversations cluster here. Concentrate your most senior team members on the stand here, take care over the technical demos and use the voice note to capture the details of the most promising conversations. These are the contacts you’ll want to re-engage first.
Day 4 (Friday)
Closing day, lower traffic but often high quality: whoever comes on the last day usually has a specific reason. Spend the time finalising records, completing missing notes, confirming next steps (technical call, spec submission, site visit) and verifying that every contact is in the CRM with tags and qualification answers. Leave the fair with the database already ready, not with a backlog of work.
What to do in the 7 days after the fair
There’s only one rule: speed of response matters more than perfection of the message. At Anuga FoodTec buyers have seen hundreds of stands; whoever calls back first, with credible context, starts ahead.
- Within 24 hours: contact the hot leads (qualified “budget approved” or “spec in progress”) with a personalised message that recalls the conversation on the stand. The recorded voice note lets you write something specific, not a copy-paste.
- Within 7 days: work the warm leads with technical material targeted to their segment (Food Processing, Food Packaging, automation, food safety) and propose a concrete step: a technical call, a sample, a site visit.
- Within 14 days: re-engage those who didn’t reply with a second touch, and enrich the records with the missing company data to prioritise the highest-potential contacts.
- Within 30 days: take stock. Which segments converted best? How many records became real opportunities? That’s the figure that guides the next edition and that management wants to see, all the more so at a triennial fair where the opportunity only comes back after three years.
This flow - capture, enrichment, qualification, follow-up - is exactly the path Linkly automates with its six AI agents: from the raw contact collected on the stand to the enriched, qualified record that lands in the CRM ready to be re-engaged. No evening spent transcribing cards, no leads going cold while they wait.
Practical FAQ
How much does it cost to exhibit at Anuga FoodTec?
The cost depends on floor area, hall and stand type (pre-built module or bare space to fit out). As a rough guide, at an international fair of this scale in Cologne a small stand typically starts in the order of tens of thousands of euros all-in (space, fit-out, services, logistics, staff), while major presences climb much higher. Request the official price list from Koelnmesse and always reason in terms of cost per qualified lead, not cost of space: that’s the number that tells you whether the fair went well, especially with a triennial cadence.
Which is the best day to staff the stand with the senior team?
The central days, broadly Wednesday and Thursday, are when buyers with concrete projects and the most in-depth technical conversations cluster. If you have to choose where to place your most experienced people and decision makers, place them there. The last day has less traffic but often high quality: keep it well staffed.
When should you register and handle entry tickets?
Online and in advance. For visitors, early registration on the Anuga FoodTec portal is the norm and speeds up access; the ticket lives in the app with a QR code. As an exhibitor, tell your invitees to register beforehand: it reduces queues and increases the likelihood that the people you want to see actually arrive at your stand.
Is there an alternative to collecting paper business cards?
Yes, and it’s the thing that makes the biggest difference. Collecting business cards and scattered notes means losing hours after the fair and letting leads go cold. With a digital capture system like Linkly you record the contact, the qualification answers and a voice note in a few seconds, and everything ends up in the CRM tagged by event. For the same traffic, it’s the difference between a database ready by Monday and a week of transcribing.
Are the official app and its lead tracking enough to manage contacts?
No. The official app and the Koelnmesse Networking feature are there to navigate the fair, get you found and track leads in a raw way, but they don’t enrich company data, don’t structure qualification with your questions and don’t build the follow-up. For the sales process you need a tool you own, integrated with your CRM: see how Linkly works.
Page updated ahead of the 2027 edition. For official information on dates, halls and participation terms, consult the official site anugafoodtec.com.
ChatGPT 
Claude 
Perplexity 
Gemini