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 Texworld
Feb 9-12, 2009, Paris Le Bourget, France |
Texworld is still a firm foundation for business,
even against the background of a world financial crisis |
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October 2008 — Neither a world financial crisis nor a strike by the main regional railway serving the show prevented 15,952 buyers from around the world from coming to Texworld to find out about products (fabrics and clothing) from 900 exhibitors.
 This figure is down 10 % in comparison with the September 2007 show (17,741 visitors) but only 2,24 % down on the February 2008 show (16,340 visitors).
Performance in comparison with February 2008 was wholly satisfactory given that Texworld’s prospecting and marketing departments have been working in the background on potential visitors since then, and this is now beginning to bear fruit.
As for the fall in comparison with September 2007, this is largely explained by the smaller size of the Chinese delegation and its VIPs, and by the absence of specific guests from the Chinese embassy in Paris who covered the event of the visit to Texworld by Mr Du, The Chinese Minister for Textiles and Clothing. In addition to this the railway strike went ahead and continued for the first three days of the Texworld show. Even though this was handled well by the show’s organisers – in particular free shuttle buses
were provided at the Gare du Nord – Texworld’s chairman, Michael Scherpe came down in person with some members of his team to help direct many people from abroad to the buses. This lack of normal transport caused a loss of visitors estimated at
around 5% in comparison with September 2007, and had its greatest effect on the number of repeat visits.
Despite the uncertainties caused by the world financial crisis, which is affecting all companies, Texworld’s exhibitors have made great efforts to adapt their products to the western market in terms of both fashion and quality. This effort has already borne fruit. On the basis of a quick survey of all visitors at the end of the show, a sizeable number of orders were gathered – 70% said they were satisfied with the numbers coming and 80% were happy with the ever-increasing quality of visitors.
So Texworld is still a firm foundation for business, not only when the economy is flourishing, but also when there are major economic and financial uncertainties.
Most purchasers (about 80 %) came from Europe, a group which was only down by 8.6 % against September 2007 and held up well in comparison with February 08 (+0.28 %).
The latter figure is explained by a good showing by visitors from France (+2.67 %), Germany (+1.7 %), Holland (+10 %), Poland (+9 %), Russia (+17 %) and Belgium (+16 %), while there were fewer from Spain, Italy and Britain.
As for the Americas, results were good: United States (+ 11 %), Canada (+3,5%) and Brazil (+30 %), these figures being in comparison to the February show.
Conversely the number of visitors from Asia fell by 20% against September 07 and 3% against February 08.
This September 2008 show was marked by confirmation of the importance of Bio textiles, with many new initiatives in the field of organic crop growing and sustainable development through the introduction of fair trade. Asian companies are responding
increasingly well to European certification requirements, like the Thai companies AFC-Asia Fiber Public-, RTI –Rama Textile Industry-, Thong Thai Textile and GV Silk - the first Asian companies to have obtained the « EU Flower » label for the excellence of their production methods.
Also one of the first companies to be included in the global quality programme established by the IFTH in partnership with Texworld has been the Indian company OCM, a producer of wool and part of the Burlington Worldwide organisation, which decided to have its fabrics certified through Level 1 tests (absence of azo dyes,
prohibited by European regulations) and Level 2 tests (absence of formaldehyde and a check on pH measurements).
In addition to this the “Eco-Textile Labelling Guide” published by MCL and Messe Frankfurt was available at the show for the first time, and its usefulness was appreciated because it provides a very complete list of the most important Eco Textile et Fair Trade
labels now in use in the world.
Finally the presence of young designers in the « Designers & Fashion » space, alongside Esmod Beijing, which trains stylistsdesigners, was particularly appreciated by visitors, and has already borne fruit in that there have been firm and hopeful offers
of cooperation and orders for the former and secondments and work for the latter.
The next Texworld will take place from 9 to 12 February 2009
at the exhibition center Paris le Bourget.
Texworld
texworld.messefrankfurt.com
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