“Our members were first of all delighted to be able to meet their customers in person again,” Cornelia Buchwalder, secretary general of Swiss Textile Machinery said. “And the feedback was extremely positive regarding the post-pandemic future market situation. From an admittedly low base in recent times, we see a real revival in investment.

 

“Despite the lack of many show visitors from other countries, it is still the case that China itself is a pre-eminent market for textile machinery – so it is the ideal place to restart our exhibition campaign,” Buchwalder added.

 

Rieter Group, including the Graf, SSM and Bracker businesses, described the event as a success despite the restrictions. Lower visitor attendance overall was outweighed by the response to the company’s ‘virtual booth’.

 

“At the moment, the textile machinery market is booming due to a catch-up effect. Orders for the first half of this year are already expected to be more than triple the level in the corresponding period of 2020, and customer feedback at the event was also positive,” Norbert Klapper, Rieter CEO, said in the release. “On the one hand, Chinese customers will foster investments outside China, in particular for their export business. At the same time, they will invest in their operations in China in order to stay competitive.”

 

“ITMA Asia means meeting our biggest customer base in the world – physically by our local partners, and virtually via our virtual meeting point at the Loepfe booth. While we expect to see a major transformation of exhibitions, we are determined to shape this transformation our way,” Dr Ralph Mennicke, CEO at Loepfe Brothers Ltd said.

 

“Real customer contact is very important to us,” Fritz Legler, vice-president marketing, sales and service at Staubli, said in the release. “Digital trade fairs will not replace the feeling to ‘experience’ the machines, when all five senses are activated, and the performance of the product can be presented directly.”

 

Despite the pandemic, Uster Technologies launched three significant innovations during 2021. “We closed quite a few contracts, and we were generally very satisfied with the response at the show. It was handled 100 per cent by our Chinese team, who did a fantastic job in setting up the exhibits and handling Chinese and international visitors. It was predominantly visited by Chinese companies but there were a few from other countries, such as Pakistan and Turkey. We were also pleased to return to ‘live’ exhibitions, but our virtual showroom was a valuable extra channel to stay in contact with customers and prospects,” Sivakumar Narayanan, executive vice-president at Uster Technologues, said.