Karl-Heinz Müller cancels Bread & Butter Barcelona

By

Jean-Paul Leroy

Published
Aug 25, 2014

Karl-Heinz Müller has decided to cancel Barcelona! The January 2015 edition of Bread & Butter will be held in Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, where it has been held for the past several years.

Regarding dates, Bread’s boss has rescheduled the event to be held simultaneously with the other Berlin trade shows, from January 19 to 21. In Barcelona, the trade show was to be held from January 8 to 10, kicking off the season of major European trade shows and breaking the habitual order to the irritation of Raffaello Napoleone, the head of Pitti Uomo.

According to Sportswear International, which broke the news, Müller was swayed by the refusal of many exhibitors to follow him to the Catalan capital. "Most exhibitors of course have the healthy and safe German market in focus,” said the head of Bread. It’s true that the southern European market remains difficult, although Spain shows signs of recovery.

Last July, Müller proclaimed the relocation of Bread & Butter to Barcelona at a press conference held in the Catalan city immediately following Bread’s July edition. At the conference, he sat flanked by Felip Puig, the Catalan Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Xavier Trias, the mayor of Barcelona and Agustin Cordon, Director General of Fira.

The news comes not long after Bread announced and subsequently cancelled consumer days during the last edition. This new twist in the story casts doubt on Müller’s approach and his future plans.

That includes the edition in Seoul, for instance, which has been announced for September 2015. Of course, South Korea is an attractive market, but to take it on so soon will undoubtedly not be to the tastes of brands that have been burned by the German organizer’s recent chaotic direction.