Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles successfully concluded its 27th autumn edition in earlier October. Held alongside four other concurrent textile shows, the fair was the only major event for this sector able to take place in China during this season, providing a much-needed business platform for 735 exhibitors and 20,106 trade buyers. The fair was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai).
Ms Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd expressed: “Due to the valuable cooperation of many parties and the continued support of our exhibitors and other partners, we were able to hold the fair as scheduled despite a number of challenges. Since the pandemic situation was brought under control in China last year, we have expended considerable resources to ensure our textile fairs still take place to provide trading platforms that connect the global industry. This edition was especially important as it was the only major fair to take place in the country at this time.”
While a number of international exhibitors participated this year with individual booths, the Belgium Pavilion presented the best of the country’s home and contract products and five Chinese regional pavilions from Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Huzhou, Haining, and Tongxiang also featured. Two trend forums also provided inspiration for 2022, while the IKASAS Japanese Home Design Gallery, New Voices of Top Youth Upholstery Designers City Roving Exhibition and China International Fiber Art Exhibition gave further insights into various aspects of the industry.
Fair’s fringe programme highlights sustainability, design and more
As with all of Messe Frankfurt’s textile fairs around the world, sustainability is a big focus. A number of events under this focus took place in the fair’s fringe programme, including a half day forum titled How Sustainable Fashion is Reshaping Lifestyles, with a range of innovative companies and prestigious universities participating as speakers.
The Design Talk session featured a series of presentations from leading international designers, including from China, Japan and Europe, to share their design insights. And a new concept this year, titled New Voices of Top Youth Upholstery Designers – Intertextile Upholstery Design and City Roving Exhibition, showcased the work of six groups of young local designers from across China who presented the interior design ideas of their generation through displays and a forum. And reflecting the changes that continue to accelerate in the industry, a number of e-commerce and cross-border trade events took place, including sessions from the likes of JD Home, AliExpress and Tmall.
Exhibitor experiences
“We participated in Intertextile Shanghai for the 10th time this year. 90% of our customers were sourced from the fair, so we are still very confident in Intertextile. I think it is still necessary to have physical shows, because we do fabrics, which is not like producing final products, so people still need to talk face to face, and touch the fabrics. Even though 90% of our sales are overseas, we’ve already matched last year’s sales at this time, so our business is still good and we’re confident in the market prospects.”
Mr John Wang, General Manager, Suzhou Roufang Textile Technology Co Ltd, China
“There is eagerness from the buyers here as they haven’t been able to go to fairs for some time. Nowadays the way of doing business has changed a lot, so this fair is a very good opportunity to meet our customers again. Overall we’re quite happy that we’re here, and the main focus has been building relationships with our existing customers again. The fair is a very good opportunity for us as everybody comes here, so we’ve been able to discuss potential business with them again. Intertextile is a very important part of our sales mix as you get the possibility to get all the leads and prospects in one place.”
Mr Hohans Cheung, Director Operations, Morphrow China Co Ltd, China
“We are exhibiting for the third time this year and have always found Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles to be a good channel to increase the impact of our brand and expand our presence in the Chinese market. This year we brought our functional fabrics to the fair; our most popular fabrics at the moment are functional and in natural styles. The trend towards sustainability is also evident too, so some of our products here can be 100% recycled. We will also exhibit here next year.”
Mr Henry Huang, Operations Director (Asia Pacific), Lanzii (Shanghai) Intl Trade Co Ltd, China
“Because of the impact of the pandemic we have added more natural elements to our designs. Our new products this season reflect nature and encourage people to cherish life, including the use of a lot of renewable environmental protection materials, and the feedback from buyers has been good. I believe the difference between domestic and international acceptance is narrowing year by year, so as an overseas brand we would like to introduce some advanced concepts and lifestyles to China. The colour degree of the product and the touch and texture of the fabric cannot be accurately reflected online, so having a physical fair like this is important.”
Mr Eason Cai, Regional Manager, Prestigious Textiles, China
“Intertextile has a high level of awareness and trustworthiness in the eyes of the market. Many of our old clients came to our booth this year, as well as potential new clients who are doing R&D on products related to ours. In order to cope with the many changes in the foreign and domestic markets, we have made some changes to our sales strategy, including opening a store on Alibaba’s international platform.”
Mr August Ji, Director of Business Development – Bedding, Nantong Heritage Home Textiles Ltd, China
Buyer thoughts
“I’ve been here for the last 15-20 years, it’s a perfect fair for me. Intertextile is the most important exhibition for me, as well as Heimtextil. This is where I come to find quality manufacturers, some of them I already know as well as some new ones recommended by Intertextile, so I can do good business with them. I can always find new products and manufacturers which we will develop as sourcing partners over the next one or two years, as well as meet with my existing suppliers. China has become very important due to COVID as the manufacturers here are all open. A lot of our customers can’t come here, but they know the factories are open so are still placing orders with us.”
Mr Abhishek Agrawal, Director, Rikatex Intl Ltd, Hong Kong
“This is my fourth time at the fair. We are sourcing products for clients in Russia, and also make our own products to sell. Recently because of COVID we have new and existing customers more interested in home textiles products because people are spending more time at home. Yesterday I saw many of my current suppliers, and I could find designs that are very popular in Europe and some new products, so I could find things that I will take back after the fair. ”
Mr Ros Gorovets, Togas Company, Ukraine
“The main purpose of joining the fair through the online sourcing platform was to purchase home textile products and to find long-term supply partners for export to Spain. This was our first time participating in an online livestreaming presentations, and it allowed us to have a more intuitive understanding of the products. I’m grateful for this platform, and the process has been perfect, as it allows us to still participate in the fair as well as make contact with exhibitors. I hope to be able to do this onsite next time.”
Mr Jose Miguel Ramirez Gonzalez, Globalbc, Spain
Fringe programme participant
“This is my first time visiting Intertextile Shanghai. From what I’ve seen, this is a really good fair, very comprehensive with a lot of different things going on. I’m always interested in seeing what’s new, so having the forums as part of the fair has been very successful. I’ve spoken at two of them about new fashion and new textiles, and the response from the audience has been very strong. I’ve been really inspired by what I see here, and I look forward to coming back, particularly as the industry recovers from COVID and seeing things get better and better.”
Prof Simon Collins, Chief Creative of Design Innovation Institute Shanghai, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University, China
The 2022 Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition will take place from 9 – 11 March, while the Autumn Edition is scheduled for 23 – 25 August 2022. The fair is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Home Textile Association (CHTA).
To find out more about this fair, please visit: www.intertextilehome.com. For more information about Messe Frankfurt textile fairs worldwide, please visit: http://texpertise-network.
