Positive economic statistics and an optimistic business climate in the sector underscore the good atmosphere at the fair

Turkish representation goes up again after slight decrease in recent years

Sleep products showcased at Hall 8

Heimtextil 2014 in Frankfurt am Main represented a successful start to the new furnishing season. “Almost 67,000 visitors from 133 countries (2013: 65,835) made their way to Frankfurt to see the latest products and innovations being shown by 2,718 international exhibitors (2013: 2,616). With growth on both the visitor and exhibitor sides, Heimtextil 2014 has been a complete success. In addition to the excellent statistics, the quality and enormous spectrum of products underscore the unique position of Heimtextil as the world’s leading trade fair for home and contract textiles”, says Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, summing up the results of the event.

With growth in the number of exhibitors for the fourth year running, Heimtextil sent a positive signal to the sector even before it began. This and the return of many leading renowned European companies gave a further boost to a sector already taking an optimistic view of the coming season. For example, one of the high-grade returnees, Chivasso from the Netherlands, was delighted with the fair and the orders taken: “We decided to exhibit at Heimtextil again and are very pleased with the results”, reports International Sales & Marketing Manager Robert Petit. “For us, Heimtextil was unequivocally an order fair. Great interest was shown in our high-quality wallpaper designs by both German and international visitors.”

“Fascinating trends effectively presented, satisfied exhibitors and enthusiastic visitors”, was how Martin Auerbach, Director General of the Association of the German Home Textile Industry (Verband der Deutschen Heimtextilien-Industrie), Wuppertal, summed up the fair. “Improvements were also made to the very well attended ‘Contract Square’ lecture area, a textile oasis where participants sat on design classics. Also extremely satisfied were the bedding manufacturers from the fully booked-up Hall 8. With their own trend show and interesting lectures, the DecoTeam attracted a large number of visitors to Hall 3.0.”

Heimtextil Trend Show with an astonishing variety of textiles
Whether playful interactivity, scientific depth, contemplative calm or a textile labyrinth: the Heimtextil Trend Show in Forum 0 held visitors enthralled with its spectrum of textile impressions and was the undoubted highlight of the fair. The Trendtable of six renowned design studios compacted the trends for 2014/2015 into two antithetic blocks: ‘Progress!’ and ‘Revive!’ with four sub-themes entitled ‘Generate Collision!’, ‘Engineer Nature!’, ‘Exalt Purity!’ and ‘Rejuvenate Craft!’. “On the one hand, we want to look ahead and propagate technical progress as a chance for survival in this fast-moving age. On the other hand, the glance back into the past is important, as is the renewal of past traditions as part of the search for authenticity”, said Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies, summarizing the trend prognoses. Over 2,500 visitors attended the accompanying program of lectures.

Visitors and exhibitors emphasize the high standard of the fair

As in previous years, the results of the fair were given a positive rating by both exhibitors and visitors. Thus, 94 percent of visitors (2013: 94 percent) said they had achieved their goals for the fair, which confirms the high standard of Heimtextil exhibitors. In turn, the bulk of exhibitors were very pleased with the visitor quality – 79 percent reported that they had achieved their targets for the fair (2013: 78 percent). The high level of internationality at Heimtextil continues to be characteristic of the fair: just over 66 percent of visitors (2013: 66 percent) and 88 percent of exhibitors (2013: 88 percent) came to Frankfurt from outside Germany with particular growth being noted from Scandinavia, East Europe, South America and South Korea. The large number of international participants and the importance of Heimtextil for the export business were also confirmed by Thomas Albrecht, CEO of Albrecht Creative Concepts: “We had customers from Japan, Korea, Brazil and very many from America in general – all were here and all placed orders. Given that this was our first time at the fair after a five-year break, I was very surprised by the large number of orders we took.”

The presentation as an opportunity to stand out

Particularly evident at the 44th Heimtextil was the increasing significance attached to the presentation of textile products. The positive economic outlook for 2014 and the increasing purchasing power in Germany mean new opportunities for the retail trade. Thus, SATI’s Ben Martens appealed to German retailers saying, “The focus must be on emotions because customers want high-grade, innovative and individual solutions. Interior decorators with their own signature are well equipped to take advantage of this trend.”