Doggie treadmills, pet toilets, bottled water for pets and weight-loss toys were among hundreds of new products unveiled at Global Pet Expo 2008.

The show, held Feb. 14-16 in San Diego, was the fourth co-sponsored by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (Greenwich, Conn.) and the Pet Industry Distributors Association (Bel Air, Md.).

Billed as the largest annual pet trade show, Global Pet Expo featured 796 companies in 2,357 booths—an exhibit space equal to 15 football fields. These figures represent an increase of 5 percent in exhibitors (versus 761 in 2007) and an increase of 3 percent in booth space (versus 2,298 booths in 2007).

“There were 2,357 booths sold this year, making Global Pet Expo 2008 the largest show ever produced by APPMA and PIDA,” said Andrew Darmohraj, senior vice president of APPMA. “Buyer attendance topped 4,000. International buyers made up 23 percent of the total buyer attendance, also a record. We’re extremely pleased at the success of this year’s show.”

The final count on registered buyers was 4,017, down 13 percent from 4,614 buyers at the 2007 show. Buyers represented 778 multi-unit retailers and 944 single-unit retailers, according to APPMA.

Seven companies garnered awards for outstanding booth presentations. In the large-booth category, for exhibits occupying 400 square feet or more, the winners were Multipet International (Moonachie, N.J.) and Carlson Pet Products Inc. (Prior Lake, Minn.).

In the small-booth category, for exhibits occupying 300 square feet or less, the winners were Kurgo/Motivation Design L.L.C. (Salisbury, Mass.) and M2Pets (Stamford, Conn.).

In the boutique booth category, the winners were Pet Head/Skaffles L.L.C. (New York) and Up Country (Rumford, R.I.).

In the What’s New! category, for booths by first-time exhibitors, the winner was Zoombak L.L.C. (New York).

The next Global Pet Expo will be held Feb. 12-14, 2009, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit www.globalpetexpo.org.   [May 2008 PET AGE]