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