MADE IN PORTUGAL STRONG IN JAPAN
With more and more clients in the Japanese market each day, eight Portuguese companies are at Jitac fair exhibiting innovative and quality fabrics manufactured in Portugal to cement the good commercial relations and meet Japanese clients’ requirements.
With more and more clients in the Japanese market each day, eight Portuguese companies are at Jitac fair exhibiting innovative and quality fabrics manufactured in Portugal to cement the good commercial relations and meet Japanese clients’ requirements.
Top of the range fabrics and knits compose the offer that the Portuguese delegation – comprising A Têxtil de Serzedelo/Texser, Albano Morgado, Burel Factory, Gierlings Velpor, Lemar, Somelos Tecidos, Riopele e Tintex – shows in the renowned Japanese fair dedicated to fabrics, Jitac.
In its first incursion in Japan, Albano Morgado proposes a vast collection of fabrics for autumn-winter 2015/2016, where cashmeres and ecologic fabrics Ecolife, a line of ecofriendly products, are on the spotlight. «It’s an attempt to conquer a new market. Considering the reception we had from some Japanese that usually visit us in another fairs, we have decided to go and meet them and try to enlarge our clients list», justifies the administrator Albano Morgado.
Burel Factory, on its side, already knows well the Japanese market, which is open to its proposals of burel fabric, which now gain new patterns, colours and designs. «We are showing products that appeal to Japanese taste», unveils Isabel Costa, CEO of the company. Besides the usual fabric offers, Burel Factory is still presenting fashion accessories, such as backpacks, to illustrate the creativity and versatility of its fabrics. «Japan is a market that is made step by step, where you create a relationship», adds the CEO.
A relation that is being strengthened every year, as reflect the numbers of fabric exports to Japan, which between January to August 2014 increased 16.94%, to over 750.5 thousand euros.
Although wool fabrics are in great demand, cotton fabrics are the market’s bestsellers, with exports of almost 325 thousand euros in the first eight months of the year. A kind of fabric that can be found on companies such as Somelos Tecidos, specialized in shirting fabrics. «Japan is a market that is allowing us to grow and it has a great potential. It’s important being there», says administrator Tiago Guimarães.
Also specialized in the same product type, Têxtil de Serzedelo/Texser proposes a collection that «covers essentially the casual side of shirting. This collection has been developed based on the company’s tradition and it includes new fabric ranges with cotton/wool blends, Egyptian yarns, that few companies use in this kind of articles, in checkered pattern and also with a flannel touch, which is one of our strengths», states company’s export director, José Ferreira.
At Lemar, the spotlight is on the preview of striped beach fabrics for 2016. «We used new yarns, with emphasis on blends, which is having a very good acceptance in the Japanese market», says CEO Manuela Araújo. The company is also showing a collection for autumn-winter 2015/2016 marked by «fabrics for several applications, that is, the same fabric with different finishes that can be used in beach products or winter anoraks», she adds. «This collection has stripes and squares, which are our ex-libris and are part of Lemar’s DNA», underlines the CEO.
Always with technological novelties, in this edition Riopele is introducing in the market a new finishing, Çeramica Clean, «which is waterproof, but without changing the fabric touch. It’s being applied on flannel, but it can be adapted to other products», explains António Soares, company’s market manager, who states that «the Japanese market is more dynamic, with more orders from traditional clients».
To visitors interested in furs with animal imitations, like Bambi or giraffe style, Gierlings Velpor is a mandatory stopover. The Portuguese company, which sells to major distributors and also two Japanese designers, is also presenting, as main novelties, «digital printings and jacquards», unveils company’s sales manager, Pedro Lima.
The Portuguese offer at Jitac is complemented with Tintex knits, whose eclectic collection includes Tencel with wool blends and thermo bonded, double knits and, regarding design, iridescent sparkles, digital prints, tri-dimensional, aromatic and paper touch knits.
The participation of these Portuguese companies at Jitac, which takes place November 11th - 13th, is an initiative promoted by Associação Selectiva Moda with the support of European funds (Qren), under the project From Portugal. This project includes more than 65 international actions planned for 2014, which cover the entire textile and fashion chain, divided by four continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and America – with a total investment of EUR 9 million.
