site.btaOn the Eve of Arena of Beauty Professional B2B Exhibition

People's spending on keeping themselves in good health and taking care for how they look does not seem to be significantly affected by the inflation, the energy crisis or the war, according to Krassimira Kraeva, organizer of the Arena of Beauty Professional trade fair which opens in the Sofia Inter Expo Centre on October 14. 

The average Bulgarian spends BGN 200 monthly on different beauty procedures, while in Britain the amount is the equivalent of BGN 700, Kraeva says. Beauty spending is halved in the winter months.

Kraeva says that an indicator of the demand for beauty procedures in Bulgaria is the number of newly opened beauty parlours and the arrival in this country of global names in the beauty industry. 

This year's edition of the Arena of Beauty Professional trade fair, which is a special B2B event, will have 62 exhibitors, which is nearly half the figure in 2019. The drop is attributed to the coronavirus pandemic which hit the industry hard. 

Six foreign exhibitors: from Greece, Romania, Poland, Italy and Austria, will be taking part in the trade fair. Of the Bulgarian participants, four companies are producers of beauty products and the others are importers of beauty brand products from 50 countries. 

One advantage of the lower number of exhibitors is that the companies participate with larger exhibition areas and come with bigger teams of beauticians, hair stylists, make-up artists and own models to do their demos, workshops and presentations. 

More than 12,000 people in Bulgaria are employed in the beauty sector, according to Gergana Andreeva, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Essential Oils, Perfumery and Cosmetics Association. The pay in the sector varies depending on the employee's position, but across the sector the lowest salary is higher than the minimum monthly wage in Bulgaria. Andreeva also notes that the employers in the sector are among some of the best-performing companies in this country in terms of corporate social responsibility.