Mecline, Altaflex and Fema Stands at Interzum 2025

Interzum, in Cologne, is the leading global trade fair for components and materials for the furniture industry. At the 2025 edition, three Italian companies — Mecline, Altaflex and FEMA Industry — chose VM Live to build their exhibition stands.

For all three projects, VM Live was responsible solely for construction, installation and furniture rental, building bespoke stands with the utmost fidelity to the concepts supplied by the clients. It’s a precise, clearly defined role: no creative choices, full responsibility for the quality of execution.

Each space was built with attention to detail and strict adherence to geometries and finishes, to ensure a functional, consistent and visually flawless result. At a trade fair abroad, this also means managing transport, customs procedures and installation crews at trade fair grounds with their own rules, different from those in Italy.

With a floor area of 187 square metres on a 17 x 11 metre plot and two open sides, the FEMA Industry project is the largest of the three. The material specifications set out in the client’s design include a timber ceiling, backlit panels, carpet, multiwall polycarbonate and a sign featuring the company logo’s pictogram, as well as different flooring solutions, combining carpeted floor coverings and a raised floor.

This variety of materials is what makes the installation so complex: timber, polycarbonate and backlit surfaces have different tolerances and fixing methods, and the points where they meet are exactly where any mistake becomes visible. Constant checks during assembly are therefore part of the job, not an afterthought.

Taking three bespoke stands to Cologne involves a longer logistics chain that is less forgiving of the unexpected. The materials travel by road for over a thousand kilometres, and anything missing or damaged can’t be replaced the same day, as it could be in Rimini or Bologna. The practical consequence is that pre-assembly in the workshop and checking every assembly in advance aren’t optional but essential.

The rules of the trade fair grounds change too: access procedures, material regulations, exhibition stand building schedules and requirements for suspended structures all follow German standards. For an Italian exhibitor, having an exhibition stand builder who handles production, transport and installation together means not having to deal with those procedures directly.

It’s an executive role similar to the one we took on for the regional stands at BMT and the Acqua di Sardegna stand at Esxence, where the concept was provided by the client.