FRANKFURT – With a total of 117 participating nations, around 63,000 visitors and 2300 exhibitors, a brilliant re-launch of the international textile fairs at the Frankfurt exhibition center was achieved. Across all three events – Techtextil, Texprocess and the one-time Heimtextil Summer Special – Italy, France, Turkey, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Pakistan and the USA formed the top visitor nations. On all three business platforms, in addition to brisk order activity and high visitor quality and satisfaction, the concentrated positive energy of personal global encounters was particularly noticeable.
“The world met again in Frankfurt. International encounters and stimulating new business returned immediately after the pandemic-related break: The textile trade fair business is back and shows its global strength. We and our global Texpertise Network, with 60 events worldwide covering the textile value chain, are looking positively to the future. At the same time, against the backdrop of global challenges, we will continue to expand our internation
Heimtextil al partnerships, such as with the Conscious Fashion & Lifestyle Network in cooperation with the UN Office for Partnerships,” says Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board, Messe Frankfurt.
Despite ongoing travel restrictions, all three trade shows maintained their pre-pandemic level of internationality in terms of both exhibitors and visitors. In addition to European countries, Pakistan, India, Korea and the USA were also among the top visitor nations. Visitor satisfaction also remained stable at a high level for all three events, averaging 91 percent. Intensive live discussions with old and new partners, new global contacts in personal exchanges, spontaneous cooperations in direct dialog – all this was finally possible again. Buyers from all over the world took the chance of the one-time parallelism of the trade show trio for cross-networking to place orders and initiate new business.
With a global volume of nearly 1,000 billion USD [1] and a predicted growth rate of more than 4.4 percent through 2026[2], the textile industry is one of the most important global industries. “The textile industry remains a high-growth market that needs face-to-face interaction. In these times of massive supply chain disruptions, we have provided the markets with our unique crossover at the most important international marketplace for product innovations along almost the entire textile value chain at exactly the right time.” said Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies.
Heimtextil Summer Special: expectations of special edition exceeded
Due to the cancellation of the regular Heimtextil in January due to the pandemic, the international trade fair was held this year as a one-time Summer Special parallel to Techtextil & Texprocess at the request of the industry.
“This was our first Heimtextil and we are very satisfied. In 2023, we would like to double our stand area. We had many new contacts, especially international, from France and Arab countries, but also from Germany. Only the German specialized trade was missing. Actually, I was an opponent of the one-time June date, but I am pleasantly surprised. We even had many business deals during the fair,” says Rüdiger Speicher, sales manager at Teppiche Lalee oHG.
Turkish exhibitor Barine Tekstil was also satisfied and is already planning for the next Heimtextil, which will then fall on the original January date again. “Even though it was not crowded, we had many new contacts in the first three days. We are satisfied and will be back in January 2023,” said Gamze Karakaya, sales manager at Barine Tekstil.
Wholesalers from Europe and overseas also found firstclass contacts for their volume business. It became clear: the leading international trade fair for home and contract textiles, which this year was held for one time only in the summer at the request of the industry, has already succeeded in returning to the international stage even with a smaller summer range. Visitors were delighted to finally experience and order home and household textiles in person again – from contract, decorative and upholstery fabrics to functional textiles and end products for textile furnishings, textile design and bedding.
Sustainability as a clear focus of Heimtextil
The Heimtextil Summer Special was trend-setting with its clear focus on sustainability. A wide range of products – from fibers made from PET bottles and fair trade natural materials to textile products with QR codes for tracking the entire production process – enabled visitors to experience the megatrend of sustainability in its entirety. Linen in combination with other natural fibers such as hemp and wool as well as bed linen made of cotton coated with cork were also part of the green global product portfolio. In this context, the daily Green Tours with insights into recyclable textiles were also well received.
Fresh impulses were provided by the Heimtextil Trends for the industry. The Trend Space put the spotlight on unusual approaches to avoiding waste and economic imbalances. Other crowd-pleasers were the Green Village with reliable certificates as well as the Heimtextil Conference “Sleep & More” on the mega-topic of sleep and the sustainable hotel industry, and as well the range of lectures and guided tours as part of Interior.Architecture.Hospitality.
The next Heimtextil will take place from January 10 to 13, 2023. The next Techtextil and Texprocess will be held from April 23 to 26, 2024.
