at Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen, 1,065 international exhibitors from 11 countries and regions (2018: 971 from 12 countries & regions, an 8% increase) welcomed 17,745 visitors from 46 countries and regions* (2018: 17,664 from 35 countries & regions). Exhibitors reported successful business outcomes in the promising South China market, thanks to the fair’s high buyer quality and location. After already expanding by one hall this year, venue and date changes are planned for the next edition in 2020 to further accommodate the fair’s consistent growth.
In October 2020, the fair will move to the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center – the world’s largest exhibition venue – and as the fair prepares to upgrade to this larger space, this year’s exhibitors discussed the benefits of exhibiting in Shenzhen.
Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen offers an ideal place to meet and network with potential clients. At this year’s fair, exhibitors noted good potential from the visitors they met, with high demand for mid- to high-end ladieswear fabrics. With the fair conveniently located nearby local garment manufacturers, some overseas exhibitors noted that they use the fair as a way to promote their brand in the China market. Meanwhile, the focused nature of the fair enabled trade buyers to meet their sourcing targets, and they reported their satisfaction with the quality of the products on offer.
“As a brand, Intertextile is successful because it covers two key textile sourcing regions in China,” explained Ms Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd. “The Shenzhen fair focuses on the Guangdong area’s increasingly strong hub of garment manufacturers, designers and retailers. The South China market and economy continues to grow and develop, so this is a key area of potential for textile suppliers.”
The fair’s fringe programme was also well received, with good participation reported. Two seminars by testing companies Hohenstein and Testex focused on OEKO-TEX® regulations, while two more seminars focused on Spring / Summer 2020 Fabrics China trends and Autumn / Winter 2020-21 trends for menswear and ladieswear.
Exhibitors’ experiences
“We attend this fair to meet garment producers, because Shenzhen is a garment production centre. We make special fabrics for high-end ladieswear, and at this fair, we have exchanged contacts with buyers from Ralph Lauren and others. The fair promotes itself very well and that is why global brands come here. China can be a challenging market for overseas companies, but over the last 10 years, these fairs have helped us to meet many new customers.”
Mr Mert Faruk, Developer, Sahsa Tekstil, Turkey
“The Chinese market is huge, and still growing, so I came to this fair to find domestic retailers. The economy in South China is very good and there are a lot of retailers near Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Chinese and Korean fashion trends are very similar. Because of this, Chinese brands are really looking for Korean fabrics, so the Korea Pavilion is popular here.”
Mr Kool Lee, Sales Manager, Duckwoo Corporation, Korea
“Our goal is to promote our quality fabrics, especially to mid- to high-end ladieswear brands in Shenzhen and in the Pearl River Delta Region. There’s great potential in the South China market, especially in Shenzhen, in which the ladieswear market is well-developed. We want to use this fair as an entry point to this market.”
Mr Keyman Lo, Sales Director, Aadmix, Hong Kong
“We’ve met 50 customers so far at this fair. China is an important market to us, accounting for 30% of our sales. The buyers here in Shenzhen focus more on quality and this is good for us even if our collections are a little more expensive. Moving the fair to the end of October next year will benefit us as we can introduce our A/W ladieswear to domestic customers.”
Mr Atsushi Yamazaki, President, Crystal Cloth, Japan
“In the first two days of the exhibition, our booth was visited by over 150 buyers, including many designers, and many of them asked for samples from us. We have also met some international buyers from Europe and the US. We would like to expand our network in the South China market since we found more and more buyers are demanding high quality products, and we forecast increasing demand for Japanese design.”
Mr Yu Xiao-feng, Uni Textile, Japan
“From day one, we met OBM (Original Brand Manufacturers) and ODM (Original Design Manufacturers) buyers, as well as domestic female sportswear brands that meet our targets and have good potential. In Shenzhen, the fair has a stronger focus on targeting local brands and Hong Kong buyers.”
Ms Acelin Chen, Specialist, Lee Ven Industrial, Taiwan
Visitors’ voices
“The exhibition location in Shenzhen makes it convenient for us to visit factories in Guangzhou and Hong Kong after meeting new exhibitors and suppliers. The exhibition has a very clear layout and division of categories that certainly make it easy for buyers to navigate.”
Ms Anna Tchikicheva, Designer & Owner, Charm Wedding Design, Canada
“The quality offered in this exhibition is of the same standard as larger trade fairs. I have found 15 potential suppliers in the first two days that we wish to establish a cooperation with. Other than Mainland China suppliers, some of them are from Taiwan, Turkey and Korea. I also appreciate that some exhibitors in here accept small orders, which fits the sourcing trend.”
Ms Yasmin Barsch, Principal CEO, Yasmin Barsch, South Africa
“We came here to source garments and fabrics for our brand – Mooost. We were looking at some Japanese products to use in our products. We like their quality. Although it’s relatively more expensive to buy Japanese products, we have no problem with that because our brand is more Japanese style and we should definitely use Japanese fabrics to ensure the style and quality.”
Mr Geng Wenjun, MOOOST, China
Fringe programme feedback
“We led a seminar yesterday, which we think encouraged more brands to join us and learn more about sustainability. The demand for this is developing in China which creates more opportunities for us. It was a good chance to connect with existing clients, who also referred their peers to join us, so we had a full house. We are very satisfied with this.”
Ms Coline Leung, Deputy Marketing Manager, Testex, Hong Kong
“Our company is based in Hong Kong and we have factories in Shenzhen and Mainland China, so this exhibition location in Shenzhen is convenient for us. I always attend the seminars of this exhibition since they provide the latest information to industry stakeholders. Our products have already been certified with Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX® but I want to get more professional updates through the seminars, such as new “Made in Green” updates. This saves me time as I don’t need to do as much independent researching.”
Patrick Yeung, General Manager, Sun Hing Industries Holding Limited, Hong Kong
The fair was held concurrently with the 19th China International Fashion Brand Fair – Shenzhen at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; the China Textile Information Centre; and the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association. For more details, please visit: https://intertextile-pavilion-
To find out more about all Messe Frankfurt textile fairs worldwide, please visit: www.texpertise-network.com.
*including visitors from Mainland China
