CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, and owner of the exhibition and its Asian counterpart ITMA ASIA, pleased with the overwhelming response received from the global textile and garment manufacturing industry, both from exhibitors and visitors at ITMA 2015 held in Milan from 12-19 November. Almost 123,000 visitors from 147 countries saw the very latest technologies from over 1600 exhibitors. Exhibitors included all of the the world’s foremost textile machinery makers – and many of them are delighted with both the quantity and quality of visitors who attended the show.

Charles Beauduin, President of CEMATEX said that they registered a 20% jump in visitor numbers compared with ITMA 2011. More importantly, from participants' feedback, they can confidently say that this is one of the best ITMA exhibitions! Their message on sustainability has resonated greatly with buyers.

Mr. Beauduin praised the industry's resilience and forward-looking agenda, adding that global industry players have understood the importance of investing in innovations that are planet-friendly and which can also help improve their business bottom-line. Exhibitors have discovered that the visitors - whether they are seasoned ITMA visitors or attending the exhibition for the first time – are serious about checking out new innovative solutions to improve their competitive edge.

Ms. Regina Brückner, CEO of Brückner Trockentechnik GmbH & Co KG, Germany, said that they felt for the first time there's a real understanding and interest in energy efficiency and green technology. There's a trend among their customers to want to upgrade their very old equipment because they understand the necessity of a highly productive and efficient production over the entire textile production process.

Overall, CEMATEX reports, exhibitors felt that the quality of visitors was high and there was strong buyer interest. One leading machine builder, who did not want to be quoted, confirmed this to Knitting Industry, said that on day five that it had received almost 1700 enquiries for its machinery, many of which were grade A leads. They have returned to a time when they are once again actually taking orders at ITMA. This is the first time this has happened in a long time, a spokesperson for the company said.

Olivier Despont, Business Development at ViDi Systems, reported that his company had received around 100 enquiries per day, three or four times the number the company had expected to achieve. Vidi is a leading Swiss software firm aiming to revolutionize the industry by commercializing the first Deep Learning-based image analysis solution dedicated to the machine vision market. The company’s ViDi Suite is a revolutionary new software solution based on a set of state-of-the-art algorithms in Machine Learning (Deep Learning).

According to organisers CEMATEX, visitors from Italy formed the biggest contingent, accounting for 18 % of visitors at ITMA. The other top visiting countries were India (9%), Turkey (8%) and Germany (7%). Other countries which made it to the top 10 list were France, United States, Iran, Brazil, Pakistan and Spain. The lifting of sanctions on Iran in the near future is also said to have buoyed the country's textile and garment sector, resulting in more visitors.

ITMA 2015 also welcomed many groups from the Indian sub-continent. There were also delegations from Central Asia - a region where the textile and clothing industry is poised for development, as the sector has the potential to create jobs. A 140-strong Uzbekistan textile and garment industry delegation spent three days at the exhibition, coordinated by the Textile and Garment Ministry of Uzbekistan.

In addition, there was a delegation of 48 representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the textile and clothing sectors in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The group was coordinated by Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.

A Russian delegation of 60 members was led by Mr. Evgeny Ryzhov, Deputy Director of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. "ITMA 2015 allowed their domestic companies to learn about the latest technologies for the light and textile industry, enabling them to consider implementing them in their own production, purchase production equipment and to exchange experience with foreign colleagues.

Launched as a dedicated sector at ITMA 2015, the printing chapter featured many established and new exhibitors. First-timer Fujifilm showcased its capabilities as a complete solution provider in digital textile printing.

Mr. Terry O'Keeffe, Strategic Customer Support Manager of Fujifilm, said that ITMA has been an excellent platform for us to feature many exciting new developments in the digital sphere to a targeted audience. Their technology was very well received with good customer feedback that their technologies significantly contribute to the current and future digital textile market needs.

ITMA continues to be the world's showcase for textile printing, and provides the ideal platform for presenting their latest technologies, said Dick Joustra, CEO, SPGPrints. The show's organisers have kept the ITMA fresh with new programmes so that visitors can see the latest in textile printing equipment while also learning about the urgency of issues like sustainability. The volume and quality of those coming to ITMA make it a dynamic and exciting marketplace.

Exhibitors from other sectors were also impressed with the quality of the visitors, CEMATEX reports. One happy exhibitor is Mr. Etienne Leroi, General Manager of NSC Fibre to Yarn, said that this year's ITMA has entirely met their expectations. They have received numerous customers from all over the world, who have shown great interest in their latest developments. This confirms once more the importance of such an international event.

At the close of the exhibition on 19 November, Mr. Carlo Rogora, CEO of ITEMA Group, concluded that considering the current situation in the textile industry in some markets, they are pleasantly surprised with these results. ITMA 2015 has been especially satisfactory, both in terms of the organisation and logistics of the show and the significant level of attendance of customers. The contacts and orders they established, above all from India and Turkey markets, largely exceeded their expectations.

The next ITMA 2019 will be held at Fira de Barcelona Gran Via fairground from 20 to 26 June.