Textile Printing

Heimtextil 2018: Renewed growth in visitors and exhibitors

Wednesday 31. January 2018 - Successful start to the new furnishing season: around 70,000 visitors from 135 countries experienced design innovations by 2,975 international exhibitors at Heimtextil from 9 to 12 January. Urban design in the context of architecture and the hotel industry became the top topic of the international trade fair for home and contract textiles.

‘With growth on both the visitor and exhibitor side, Heimtextil has convinced across the board and underpinned its unique position as a world-leading trade fair’, says Detlef Braun, CEO of Messe Frankfurt. Around 70,000 visitors, including representatives from the retail and wholesale trade, interior decorators, design, architecture and interior design, the hotel industry and industry, benefited from the fair’s unique range of products and inspiration.
International top buyers from the retail sector
The quality of the visitors was again outstanding. Almost three quarters of them were executives. More than seven out of ten visitors travelled to Heimtextil in Frankfurt from abroad. Trade representatives once again included top buyers from major mail order companies, furniture stores and retail chains, including BAUR, Bruno Bader, Cotonis, Erwin Müller, Industrias Spring, Objekt- und Hotelausstattung Felbermayr, Hornbach, Otto, QVC, Unimasa, Witt Weiden XXXLutz and York Furnishing Textiles FZE.
Heimtextil also offers ideal conditions for the medium and small retail trade segment and interior decorators. They benefit from tailor-made offers and exclusive benefits programmes such as Heimtextil Insider and Bed’ n Excellence.
Growing offer
For the eighth time in a row, the trade fair increased the number of participating companies; these now total 2,975 international exhibitors. In addition to global market leaders and industry leaders, Heimtextil also provided an international platform for more than 50 young designers and start-ups with its newcomer programme “New & Next”. One of the focal points of the trade fair was contract furnishing and the associated focus on the target group of architects and property planners. ‘For us it was a fantastic trade fair première’, says Tom Puukko, owner of the wallpaper manufacturer Feathr from Finland. ‘We were able to generate new and excellent contacts from all parts of the world. A special highlight for us was a group of architects who stopped by our stand, enabling us to present our products to them’.
Architecture meets textile design
With a high-calibre programme of lectures, topic-specific guided tours and an exposed presentation area, namely the new “Interior.Architecture.Hospitality Expo” in hall 4.2, Heimtextil expanded its commitment to textile contract furnishing – and with great success. Numerous architects and interior designers, hoteliers and furnishers took advantage of the diverse information and networking opportunities. ‘I considered a visit to Heimtextil as a valuable incentive for my work, i.e. for the interior furnishings and design of shops and restaurants at the airport. I was able to make interesting contacts and discover exciting, very high-quality products’, says Jun-Florian Peine, Project Manager Retail Development Fraport AG. In the immediate vicinity of the new area, carpet suppliers were able to present themselves as part of a joint presentation by the Association of German Home Textiles Manufacturers (Heimtex) entitled “Carpet by Heimtex”. Volker Knieß, responsible for International Sales at Toucan-T, drew a positive conclusion: ‘We found the new concept of a joint presentation interesting and are very satisfied with how the fair went. With the main focus on acoustics, flexibility and design, we appeal particularly to the architects who we encounter here at Heimtextil. The guided tours for architects in particular bring us into contact with this target group and open up interesting contacts for us’. Maasberg targeted interior designers and property planners in the Expo area with a flame-retardant cotton product: ‘We came to Heimtextil to check how well received our feischee-coex collection would be on the market. And it was outstanding! Especially when we won the AIT Trend Award. The jury is made up of the crème de la crème of interior design – it is a very special distinction’, says Managing Director Gunther Maasberg. His business partner Simona Pesarok from Coex developer Torcitura Padana SpA, was particularly impressed by the Expo environment: ‘Here the focus is on innovation and sustainability. This is exactly the right place for us’.
Urbanisation is becoming a major trend topic
With the “Theme Park” trend area, Heimtextil gave an outlook on the design and furnishing trends of the future. Under the title “The Future is urban”, international design experts visualised the megatrend of urbanisation. Based on the statement that more than half of the world’s population already lives in major cities, the area not only showcased the colour and material trends of the coming season, but above all real future prospects in the field of textile interior design. The London-based studio FranklinTill directed the showcase in hall 6.0 and received great acclaim for a trend presentation that was both progressive as well as tangible and clear. Based on the motto of the Theme Park “The future is urban”, the Trendspot Retail in hall 11.1 offered an exciting retail experience and showed how the use of colours in shops as well as within our own four walls can have a positive impact on human well-being.
Successful start for exhibitors in the “All about pets” area
Exhibitors with textile products aimed at dogs and cats presented their wares for the first time at Heimtextil in the “All about pets” area. Friederike Erhorn, CEO of Volentis GmbH was enthusiastic: The “All about pets” area of Heimtextil is ideally suited for us to present ourselves not only to interested pet owners, but also to interior decorators, interior designers and furniture stores. We were able to make great use of our time here in Frankfurt to make new contacts and who knows, perhaps this will soon lead to new collections with some renowned textile manufacturers. The new area was complemented by a café and a special show that put the products in the limelight and inspired the audience.
Finished goods in the home textile sector on the upswing
Approximately 1,500 suppliers of finished products from the home textiles sector showed off their best side with an incomparable range of topics and areas of application, whether relating to sustainability, healthy sleep or international design. Edward Li, Creative Director of Luxotic, was at Heimtextil with his own company in premium suppliers area in hall 11 for the second time: ‘My colleagues and I were absolutely thrilled, especially on the second day! You have to perform differently at a trade fair to stand out from the crowd. Next year, we’ll double our booth and plan an even better presence’. In the home textiles segment, Heimtextil offers the world’s largest range of bed linen. Cristina Machado, manager at Inspiration Time – Indústria Têxtil drew a positive conclusion: ‘Our stand was very well received. We had planned appointments every day, but there was a huge boom on the second day in particular. There were five of us at the stand and ten of us couldn’t have managed it ourselves. We have made very good new contacts. I’m very happy’.
Green Village – Sustainability and more
In the Green Village in hall 8, exhibitors and visitors to Heimtextil were able to find out more about environmentally and socially responsible textiles and get in touch with seal awarders and certifiers. At the same time, the Green Village was the starting point for the Green Tours, i.e. tours of selected exhibitors for sustainable textiles.
The varied lecture programme in the Green Village offered insights into current topics and developments in the green segment. On the Thursday of the trade fair, the lectures covered the hotel industry with a focus on sleep. In this context, sleep coach Nick Littlehales, who advises athletes such as football star Cristiano Ronaldo on sleep strategies for maintaining and improving performance, gave a lecture. He drew the listeners to his lectures in the Green Village into the world of top athletes, how they sleep, what sleep performance is and how each of them achieves the best results when it comes to sleeping and beds.
New concept 2019
Based on discussions with exhibitors and visitor surveys, Messe Frankfurt has developed a new Heimtextil concept for 2019. ‘From the perspective of buyers in particular, we are repositioning Heimtextil 2019 and grouping themes and product groups according to target groups. In this way, synergies can be better recognised and exploited’, says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt. In addition, the demand for stand space on the exhibitor side has grown sharply in some product groups in recent years. The opportunity to optimise the concept is not least due to major construction measures currently being implemented at the Messe Frankfurt exhibition site: the new hall 12 will be erected on the western side of the site and will be available to Heimtextil for the first time in 2019. Further structural measures are to follow around halls 5 and 6.
The next Heimtextil, international trade fair for home and
contract textiles, will be held in Frankfurt am Main from 8 to 11 January
2019.

www.heimtextil.messefrankfurt.de
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