DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Ernesto Limcaco, corporate executive chef at Y. Hata & Co., cooked Glenn's ahi poke cups yesterday at the Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality and Foodservice Expo at the Blaisdell Center.

Hospitality expo
looks for brighter times

Exhibitors say more companies
are in the market for products

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Exhibitors at Hawaii's biggest hospitality industry trade show, ending today at the Neal Blaisdell Center, say they have been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest shown by commercial purchasers of all kinds of industry products.

Tourism is off and the economy is down but there was a waiting line for yesterday morning's start of the Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality and Food- service Expo, a joint show created for the Hawaii Hotel Association and the Hawaii Restaurant Association.

"Last year it was dead in here," said Byron Goo at the stand of The Tea Chest, a local grower, wholesaler and distributor of herbal teas. An hour into the show, people were stopping by Goo's booth, sampling lemongrass tea and other products.

In the 2001 show, Goo was one of those located in the arena side of the Blaisdell Center, the first year the show expanded beyond the Exhibition Hall, and it did not work well for him, he said.

That was before Sept. 11, but Hawaii's business already wasn't doing very well. Now Goo is typical of exhibitors who feel they have to keep promoting when times are bad -- maybe especially when times are bad -- and are finding this year that buyers are flocking to the show.

"We're part of a larger picture, the culinary industry," Goo said, which benefits from individual successes In his company's case, it goes all the way from local farmers who grow the crops through blending, packaging, wholesaling and retailing.

There are many local exhibitors, such as the 39 companies represented in the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association area, but mainlanders willing to test their wares in the island market are also present.

Many said they are confident the Hawaii economy is turning around.

Kim Harris, president of first-time exhibitor Fritz Industries LLC in Idaho, said he came to the islands for the show because it was an opportunity to show something new to the best possible audience.

His product is a range of small coin-operated pinball machines that deliver gumballs if the balls fall in the biggest holes and bigger prizes if the operator can flip the ball against a button at the back of the tray.

The machines sell for $1,200 to $1,500 but can generate $300 to $600 a month and are a "kid magnet" for restaurants, Harris said.

An Australian furniture manufacturer, Sebel Furniture Ltd., said it came back to the show after last appearing six years ago because the company waited long enough after the slump of the 1990s and can see slow economic improvement.

"I think it will turn around," said Sue Wilkes, regional export sales manager, who came to the show from Sebel's headquarters in Bankstown, New South Wales. "Beginning in the 1990s, the economy was bad," but now is showing better signs.

Standing at a less-popular booth, Tom Zebrowski, representing Continental Refrigerators, said the economy here is still "pretty poor," but his business believes it is worth holding on to its booth commitments at the expo.

It is a great opportunity to get established and potential buyers in one place to look over the products, he said.

"You come to one spot and everyone is here to see you," he said.

The economy is picking up, he said. "We've talked to various people who say things are better than they were a few months ago," Zebrowski said.

Ken Kanter of Douglas Tradeshows, which produces the show, said this year's production has more exhibitors and expects to get more potential buyers passing through than in any previous year.

There are 102 exhibitors who have not been in the show before, of a total of 329 companies occupying 529 booths. Last year, there were about 500 booths representing 320 companies.

"We expect more than 4,500 industry professionals who have buying authority or influence over purchasing" to pass through in the two days of the show, Kanter said.

The show is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. It is free but not open to the general public. Only to those who can show identification that places them in a buying role in the hospitality industry may attend, Kanter said.