Messe Frankfurt hosted its first trade fair since February and the first Intertextile Apparel show of the year: Intertextile Shenzhen Apparel Fabrics. It took place from 15 to 17 July at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center and welcomed a total of 886 exhibitors covering 50,000 sqm.

Together with the concurrently held Yarn Expo Shenzhen, CHIC and PH Value, the four fairs attracted over 42,000 visits.

"With events beginning to resume in China, we are glad to be back in a position to support the textile industry and facilitate well-overdue business interactions. The show was the first to be held by Messe Frankfurt since February, when events were forced to be postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic, and we are pleased that Intertextile Shenzhen was able to go ahead as scheduled," said Ms Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd after the conclusion of the fair.

Part of the new strategy around this fair is to capitalize on the potential in the region offered by China’s new Greater Bay Area concept. Through cooperation with the organizers of CHIC and PH Value, it was able to offer the full textile supply chain by bringing the upstream and downstream of the industry, together with these two fairs alongside Intertextile and Yarn Expo.

Additional hygiene precautions were in place onsite

For the show to be held safely for all participants, a number of precautionary hygiene and health measures were carried out. These included real-name authentication during registration and when entering the fairground, body temperature checks, the requirement for face masks to be worn to enter the fairground, crowd control and distancing measures throughout the whole exhibition period, public areas sterilized regularly, specific areas allocated for dining, and the requirement for hand sanitizer and medical service points to be available throughout the fairground.

"The fair attracts quality buyers, including small brand designers and OEMs, from the Greater Bay Area as well as the Yangtze River Delta. Quite a number of buyers were interested in our sustainable fabrics," said Ms Kathy Lin, Heng Li String & Brand (Shanghai) Ltd, China.

"We were uncertain if many visitors would come to the fair because of the pandemic, but the fair has attracted more than we expected. We offer tailor-made antibacterial products, and have observed a sudden increase in the demand for antibacterial textile products. Many clients are looking for these and sustainable products," described Ms Leonie Liu, Head of Marketing and Business Development, Hohenstein Textile Testing Shanghai Co Ltd, China.

125 exhibitors participated in Yarn Expo

Meanwhile, the debut edition of Yarn Expo Shenzhen attracted 125 exhibitors to join, covering 10,000 sqm.

"The Yarn Expo Spring & Autumn editions in Shanghai have proved popular in recent years, with strong increases in both the exhibitor and visitor numbers. This gave us the confidence to expand the fair to the south of China where we could utilize the brand-new venue, and provide another platform for suppliers to capture the growing potential in this region of the country as well as further afield in Asia," elaborated Wendy Wen.

"This is our first time exhibiting at a Yarn Expo fair, and we are very pleased with the result. We think the pandemic has accumulated very strong demand in the market. We started our A/W promotion earlier this year and we see the market has the same trend, with most of the buyers sourcing A/W products already,"commented Ms Mary Xu, General Manager, TopLine (Ningbo) Textile Co Ltd / Consinee Group, China.