ITMA Radiates Positive Energy & Also Resounds With Success

Neither a pandemic, nor supply chain disruptions and global banking crisis among several other issues impacting the global textile industry, could keep the textile industry away from showing up at ITMA 2023.

1,709 exhibitors from 47 countries came close to 2019’s record-breaking number of exhibitors. But despite the slightly lower number of exhibitors compared to 2019, the net exhibition space expanded by three percent to 118,300 square metres.

CEMATEX association countries like Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, France and Germany made up for 867 exhibitors, or 63 percent of net exhibit space.

The Italian contingent was the largest with 422 exhibitors and also occupied the largest amount of space at 30 percent. Germany followed with 198 companies and 15 percent of the net exhibit space.

The third largest group of exhibitors was Turkey with 191 companies occupying 12 percent of the show floor net space.

“Interestingly, we also welcomed new exhibitors from Tunisia, Estonia, Ireland, Norway, Ukraine, and as far as Panama, Peru and Honduras,” said Ernesto Maurer, CEMATEX president.

“Due to high demand, about 150 applicants were not accommodated as some sectors were sold out before the space application deadline,” Maurer added.

In terms of participation by sector, top five sectors included finishing with 329 exhibitors and 27 percent of exhibit space; and spinning with 257 exhibitors and 13 percent of exhibit space.

The weaving sector had 161 exhibitors and 10 percent of exhibit space; printing with 146 exhibitors and 12 percent of exhibit space; and finally knitting with 128 exhibitors and 10 percent of exhibit space.

ITMA 2023’s sustainability focus was wholeheartedly embraced by most exhibitors with innovations mostly focusing on savings in energy, water and materials, as well as recycling and circular production.

There were 31 exhibitors in the recycling space, while exhibit space doubled from the 2019 edition.

Exhibitors showing software related to digitalistion and Industry 4.0 also increased significantly at ITMA 2023.

Around 111,000 visitors from 143 countries visited ITMA 2023 and exceeded the number of attendees in 2019.

29 percent of visitors came from Italy, followed by visitors from Turkey, India and Germany at 6 percent each of the total, 4 percent came from France, and 3 percent of visitors turned up from Brazil.

“We had good traffic at our booth in Barcelona, but visitors seemed like more tire kickers and fewer decision makers,” said Roland Zimmer, vice president, North American Sales, Zimmer Austria Inc.

“But here in Milan, our booth has been very busy the first few days and we have seen lots of decision makers,” Zimmer added.

“We have had an amazing turnout. We compared the number of visitors to our booth with Barcelona and they are 30 percent higher,” Rolf Erik Schoeler, global head of sales and marketing for Switzerland-based Benninger Group added.

“This ITMA has been crazy busy and blows all the other previous editions away. The first two days, our booth was very busy. It was impossible to fit any more people in the booth,” Rick Stanford, VP – Textile at Baldwin Technology also said.