Texprocess 2013 attracts 16% more visitors

The focus of this year’s Texprocess was on process acceleration, automation, increased process safety and resource efficiency. Manufacturers presented high-tech solutions distinguished by smart control and documentation systems, ultra-modern sensory systems and user-friendly design. Many of the innovations shown offer a great potential for saving energy and materials.

The snowballing integration of software applications in production processes was one of the mega-trends of the fair and companies presented their latest solutions within the framework of the IT@Texprocess market place in Hall 4.0. Very popular at present are cloud applications and fully integrated IT systems that not only simplify the communication of fashion labels with manufacturing plants around the world but also permit authorised users to access data from anywhere. Sophisticated 3D simulations that, for example, can replicate movements realistically bring the dream of virtual fashion design a step closer.

Production-country presentations

Rounding off the range of products to be seen at Texprocess was ‘Source it’, the presentation area for production countries. The new concept for ‘Source it’ – with the focus on national presentations and the new location in the middle of Hall 5.0 – was given a very good reception by both visitors and exhibitors.

For Dhyana van der Pols, External consultant of the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI), The Netherlands, taking part in ‘Source it’ was a great success: “We were visited by high profiled brands and clients like Hugo Boss, Escada and Tommy Hilfiger amongst others and the average duration of each visit was with 10-15 minutes surprisingly longer than on regular trade shows. It appeared those buyers make use of “inverse sourcing”: allocating the right machine suppliers and obtaining sourcing intelligence by being informed in which factories and countries those machines have been installed.

A new way of sourcing intelligence and identifying the right factories.”  At ‘Source it’, CBI represented Egypt, Bolivia, Pakistan, Peru, Tunisia and Vietnam. Separate presentations were also made by Egypt, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Kenya, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal and Tunisia. A focus of ‘Source it’ was on East Europe and North Africa. As a result of the growing costs of production in China, many apparel manufacturers are now looking for new sourcing countries. Closeness to the consumer markets offers a number of advantages, such as shorter production times and lower energy costs.

The next Texprocess will be held in Frankfurt am Main from 4 to 7 May 2015 concurrently with Techtextil (5 to 7 May). The next Texprocess Americas is scheduled to take place alongside Techtextil North America in Atlanta from 13 to 15 May 2014.

Messe Frankfurt