Start your engines!
By Susan M. Andrews, Fabric Editor -- Furniture Today, January 5, 2003
And so begins another year for the home furnishings textile industry, as two extremely important trade shows take place on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Showtime and Heimtextil, as usual, overlap for a couple of days, making this an awkward week for fabric producers and their customers. It's awkward but not impossible, since Showtime, like the semiannual international furniture market also held in High Point, tends to get an early unofficial start on the weekend before its official opening on Monday. Heimtextil, on the other hand, like virtually all European shows, is strictly controlled and business begins for everyone at precisely the same time on the official opening day.
Another difference between Showtime and the European shows, however — the sophistication of their respective entrance policies — should become history soon. The International Textile Market Assn., sponsoring body of Showtime, is launching stricter entry rules this week, a long overdue policy that will ultimately benefit buyers as well as exhibitors, and make tracking the show's growth much easier.
Catherine Morsell, associate director of ITMA, said the association has tried for a long time to find an economical way to better control entry to the show, without having to raise its members' dues to pay for the improvement. The solution came when Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., which owns Market Square Textile Tower and Suites at Market Square, where the bulk of Showtime exhibitors are located, generously offered the use of its equipment, such as laptops and printers, to ITMA so that Showtime badges can be produced at the door.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the United States is getting extra attention as the official "partner country" of Heimtextil this year. Almost 100,000 textile buyers in Frankfurt this week are able to see a number of exhibits and programs designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to promote all U.S. home furnishings textiles companies — those that do not currently export as well as those that do, many of which are exhibiting at Heimtextil.
The textile industry has been suffering because of lackluster economic conditions, unfavorable trade policies and general consumer misery, but optimism and enthusiasm are widespread this week — just adding to the happy anticipation of a fresh start in a new year. Here's hoping 2003 is marked by good business, peace and benevolence.
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