The global industry came together for the industry’s leading trade fair Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics has been wrapped up with three days of order placing, relationship building and trend-spotting. With the entire apparel fabrics and accessories product spectrum on offer, more than 77,000 trade buyers from over 100 countries and regions chose Intertextile as their sourcing event for the season. The gross area of the fair increased by six per cent compared to 2016 with 4,538 exhibitors from 32 countries and regions presenting their latest collections and innovations.
Reflecting growth in the domestic market as well as other regions, the Functional Lab grew 33 per cent in size this year, Premium Wool Zone grew 18 per cent, while an extra accessories hall was added to meet demand. In 2016, there were 73,927 trade buyers from 90 countries and regions. The exhibition was organised during October 11-13, 2017.
“Intertextile Shanghai is not just the industry’s largest event – it is also the leading sourcing and business platform for the industry. Exhibitors come here knowing they can meet quality trade buyers from around the world that are there to conduct business, while these buyers know that the fair provides an unrivalled number of suppliers across the entire product spectrum to source from. This combination is the genesis for a successful, business-focused trade event, and I’m pleased to say that this edition has once again been highly effective in this regard,” Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt emphasized the fair’s importance to the sector.
“A noticeable trend, too, was the large number of companies offering eco-friendly products and technologies, not just in our All About Sustainability zone. Innovation and sustainability in particular will continue to be a strong focus of both our Spring and Autumn Editions next year,” Wen added.
With diverse range of buyers, one of the industry’s largest players, Lenzing, who participated with 54 of their partner mills, finds the fair essential to participate in, as Maggie Shen, marketing communication manager, China, said, “Intertextile is the biggest and most important fair in the industry. It’s an effective platform for us and our partner mills to meet existing customers, as well as get new enquiries each edition.”
At the other end of the size spectrum, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds who celebrated 10 years at the fair this edition. “This edition has been very good for us, we’ve been very busy. Intertextile is an easy place to find lots of customers. A lot of new companies opening in the high-end wool sector in China come here each edition. The professionalism of the buyers is high too – specifically we’re getting tailors and specialty menswear stores here. Our sales are increasing big time in China. We expect to double our business in China in the next year,” Bob McAuley, president said.
The next Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics is the spring edition to be held during March 14-16, 2018.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
