Messe Frankfurt (HK)’s Senior General Manager, Wendy Wen, said, “While this has been our biggest autumn edition to date in terms of the number of exhibitors, what has been more pleasing is the success, fair participants have had over the three days. The increase in internationalism of exhibitors and buyers has benefited both groups, while the country pavilions and product zones, most of which grew in size this year, have proved a great success in terms of facilitating business, and have also helped to provide a focus to the fair as it grows bigger.”
Specialised country pavilions and product zones
A lot of efforts were taken by the organisers to ensure that, as the fair expands in size, exhibitors and buyers can still do business effectively and efficiently. “This year the fair featured 11 country and region pavilions, 11 group pavilions and six product zones which created an impression of having smaller, specialised fairs under one roof, which really benefited both exhibitors and buyers,” Wen explained.
Exhibitors such as Lanificio F.lli Cerruti in Italy’s Milano Unica Pavilion were just one of those to profit from this. “It’s important to have the Milano Unica Pavilion as being here is really good for our brand image,” Daniele Sanzeni, CEO and Managing Director explained, adding, “The buyers coming here already know our brand and know that we provide top quality products, and are more willing to purchase here. The visitor flow of the first two days was incredible, and we met a lot of customers not only from China, but also from overseas including Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Middle East.”
The advantages of these areas got extended to buyers too. As Domenic Colaianni, Product Developer at Berkeley Apparel from Australia said, “The pavilions and product zones benefit us as instead of going to Europe we come here to select our fabrics, either at the European pavilions or from Chinese mills, so we can do both here. It gives us a variety of styles, products and fabric choices to choose from.”
Global touch attracts exhibitors and buyers
As the fair has developed over the years, it has increasingly become a meeting point for the global industry, rather than just the Chinese market, this was felt strongly by many of this year’s participants. “I found many good international and local brands that I might consider working with. It is just the first day, but I have already placed orders with Korean and Chinese companies,” Michel Baron, from Kazar Trade Co, Brazil said.
Taiwanese exhibitor Far Eastern New Century Corp’s Eric Hu, President, Textile Industry said, “Intertextile is an international fair for sure. The visitor flow has been fantastic, and on the second day we met customers from Switzerland, India, the UK and the US, just from half an hour of my observation.”
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition 2015 was co-organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK); the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Textile Information Centre.
