Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles sees 10% visitors hike

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, held last month witnessed a 10% increase in buyer numbers when compared with the previous edition held in 2013.

According to Messe Frankfurt, the organisers of the fair, a total of 43,189 buyers from 94 countries and regions came to source from 1,334 exhibitors from 31 countries and regions.

Of these, 38,571 buyers were from China and 4,618 were from the 94 countries, with Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the US taking the top five spots in international visitor numbers.

The trade show took place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from August 27-29, 2014 across 150,400 sq meters, the largest in the 20-year history of the event.

Strong demand for overseas bedding & upholstery brands from domestic market continued and upholstery fabrics from Europe also remained popular with Chinese buyers.

This year’s country and region pavilions from Belgium, India, Italy, Korea, Taiwan and Turkey, and the new Morocco Pavilion were popular with exhibitors and buyers alike.

In recent years, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles has expanded from its traditional offerings to include a full range of home textile products.

This reflects the recent increased demand in the local market, particularly for carpets, rugs and wall coverings, as well as for the current ‘whole-home design’ concept trend.

Wall covering exhibitors were also happy with the range of buyers they could meet at the complete home textiles fair.

Given the recent economic conditions in their traditional Western markets, Chinese exhibitors too were pleased with the quality of overseas buyers.

Many buyers at this year’s fair were returning again after attending in the past, and returned with good memories about the constant improvement in many areas.

As the fair continues to evolve to meet the domestic market’s needs, this year saw a greater emphasis on design-related events, particularly around educating local designers on interior trends.

This included the first-ever ‘Design Comes Home’ crossover event with some of Europe’s premium editors and China’s leading interior designers.

Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, Wendy Wen said, “This year was a special fair for us marking the 20th anniversary, and as always, we made sure the show provided the right features.

“We invited more local designers to educate buyers on interior trends this time, and it was also pleasing to see that these buyers were still showing strong demand for overseas brands.”

The next Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Autumn Edition will be held from 26 to 28 August 2015, and will take place at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai.