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43rd EXPOFIL PRESS RELEASE

6, 7, 8 JUNE 2000
Paris - ESPACE EIFFEL-BRANLY (France)

43rd EXPOFIL: A RIOT OF COLOUR

The 43rd EXPOFIL, which was held 6-8 June at the Espace Eiffel-Branly in Paris, welcomed 7,123 visitors from 67 countries,
in a particularly lively business climate characterised by a high demand for colour.

The number of visitors, which was slightly up (+2% compared with December 99, +1% compared with June 98) , should be considered in the light of two factors: first, an admission fee was charged for the first time, which for an exhibition generally causes a drop in the number of visitors, and second, the special nature of the June 99 session which took place over 4 days in parallel with ITMA, which distorts the comparison between one year and another. The total number of visitors, which takes into account return visits and is the figure generally issued by exhibitions, rose to 9,485 (+3% compared with June 98), a
reflection of the gradual increase in the average length of visit, suggesting an intensification of work carried out at the exhibition.

Among international visitors (3,279, i.e. 46% of admissions), far-away countries scored well. The Asian countries performed well. They were either in the process of opening up to outside markets, like China (47 visitors, a sevenfold increase compared with December and more than double compared with June 99), or were enjoying an economic upturn, such as Korea (48 visitors, more than triple the number in December 99 and June 98) and Hong Kong (39, i.e. 67% higher than December last year and +8% compared with June 98). The number of visitors from Brazil and the United States continued to rise steadily (+53% for Brazil and +31% for the USA, compared to December last year). Although Europe still accounts for the largest contingent of visitors after France, the figures vary from one country to another according to their economic climate: there were appreciable increases in the number of visitors from Portugal (117, i.e. +24% compared with December 99), Austria (54, +15%), Switzerland and the Netherlands (both +10%); Italy (458) and Spain (268) remained stable while there was a fall in the number of visitors
from Germany (337, -6%) and the United Kingdom (449, -5%).

Business was brisk throughout the three days of the exhibition and exhibitors received an average of 200/250 visitors each. Buyers’ motivation and interest in innovative, quality collections contributed to the exhibition’s success. "The general
impression confirms the calibre of visitors and the atmosphere that prevails at the exhibition is a reflection of how important EXPOFIL is", emphasises Paolo Corrias, Marketing Manager at Filatura di Grignasco. The same trend is apparent at Ilaria, a Prato-based novelty yarn specialist: "We are seeing more and more customers at EXPOFIL and they are all extremely curious about the collections. This season everyone was looking for colour", says Gianpaolo Bruni, the company’s Chairman. French company Christory experienced a high level of sampling: "Our service stock allows us to react quickly when customers ask for colour. Colour gives rise to the phenomenon of fragmentation in production and in the markets. So we work to order in small quantities and we export to some thirty countries", adds Fabrice Motte, Sales Manager.

The Trends Forum, which covered an area of 900 m², was universally acclaimed for its creativity and clarity, and was hailed by visitors as an outstanding success. The items made exclusively for EXPOFIL (150 altogether!) as well as the samples made by the exhibitors themselves attracted attention by the amount of research that went into the knitting, weaving and fibre blends. EXPOFIL’s Fashion Director, Sylvie Tastemain, was delighted with the more upmarket feel to the exhibitors’ collections for Autumn/Winter 2001/2002: "I noticed that the majority of spinners produced stunning collections this season. I sensed it particularly in the quality of the samples they provided for the Forum, for which everyone proved themselves to be genuinely creative". The gradual return of colour, which began several seasons ago, is confirmed for Winter 2001/2002. Independently of the materials used, colour was hugely popular on all stands. Natural looks and handles are the season’s big winners, in coarse counts – gauges 3 and 1 – that are both soft and light. There is an increasing number of natural and synthetic fibre blends
to cater for the consumer’s new demand for comfort and easy care. Another highlight of the season is tweed - essential.

For "Nouveaux Regards", Céline Zimmermann, François-Xavier Hérody and Cécile Dunckel set themselves the challenge of creating knits and wovens that catch or reflect and conceal or reveal the light according to the way the fabric is moved or
the angle from which it is viewed. Their variations on the theme of "Optical Fibres" being the main attraction of the Forum, they obviously succeeded.

The theme of "Fibre Projections" this session was "transpositions", defined as transferring characteristics from one fibre to
another by means of blending, technology transfer, adapting traditional know-how to certain standards of comfort and modernity, and the influence of different fashion cultures. All these trends were expressed in the eight displays created by designer Atsuro Tayama: imitation leather used to achieve an ultra-feminine look, tweed transformed by a subtle play on drape, the classic herringbone readjusted through technology, the traditional tartan and a woven folk pattern carried across to macro-weaving, etc.

After the "Economic Report of the European Spinning Industry", updated annually, EXPOFIL will now also be offering an
update on activity in the sector, specially prepared by IFM/CTCOE, which will be published every six months to coincide with the exhibition. There has been an upturn in activity in the European spinning industry since the beginning of the year. In Italy, helped by a relieving of the pressure of international competition, the economic climate has improved both in cotton spinning – a result of business in the knitting and weaving sectors – and in wool spinning, which has benefited from the recovery of the Asian markets. In Germany, it is mainly the cotton spinners who have benefited from the upsurge in foreign demand while in the United Kingdom the biggest increase was experienced by top-end yarns. French spinners also saw an improvement in results, with increased demand for cotton and synthetic yarns.

During the press briefing at the end of the exhibition, the Chairman of EXPOFIL, Didier Tardy, expressed his satisfaction
with the development of the exhibition which is set to take a major new step next June when it joins the ranks of the major international exhibitions held at the Paris-Nord Exhibition Centre, Villepinte. A point taken up by Exhibition Manager Philippe Pasquet, who reminded us that, according to the standards of the OJS (Office de Justification des Salons), EXPOFIL is classed as one of the leading European textile and apparel exhibitions due to the high proportion of international visitors. The Chairman was also delighted with the good results in exports achieved by the European spinning industry in 1999, which he considers to be even more significant given that the industry is obliged at the same time to cope with a sharp rise in raw material prices and the increasingly global sourcing policy adopted by the retail sector.

>> Next EXPOFIL: 5, 6, 7 December 2000 at the Espace Eiffel-Branly <<

Press Release by Expofil - 07/07/2000

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