Talking Heads is a brand new Innovationintextiles.com column, which features interviews with the industry’s movers and shakers. In this Talking Heads, Adrian Wilson interviews Valentina Butera, head of the ACIMIT Promotion Office.

ACIMIT – the trade association representing Italy’s manufacturers of textile machinery – has very high expectations of ITMA 2015, which takes place in Milan from November 12-19.

But even such huge trade shows are not enough for an association representing European machinery builders who are truly global in their reach and service.

Italian textile machinery sales in 2014 were €2.3 billion, with exports accounting for around €1.94 million and the ACIMIT Promotion Office is very active in reaching out to those markets.

AW: What are the key advantages of ACIMIT trade missions and workshops over exhibitions?

VB: Obviously, these are promotional tools that are different and yet complementary. In seminars held abroad, Italian textile machinery producers have the opportunity to present their products to a select audience of foreign textile manufacturers. These encounters also allow Italian businesses to establish direct contacts with customers who are most interested in their specific production, within a B2B framework.

Concerning incoming missions from abroad, Italian textile machinery manufacturers have an opportunity to present their latest technology developments in special sessions, or receive visiting delegations on their premises, and whenever possible, meet with delegations at textile manufacturing sites at which their machinery has already been installed.

The delegations consist of a selected and qualified group of textile operators, normally 15-20 people.

In both cases, the level of the operators and quality of the invited textile manufacturers is guaranteed by the work of ACIMIT and the local Italian Trade Agency offices, in adequately publicising the initiative, often in partnership with local textile associations.

Incoming missions and workshops are therefore extremely targeted tools, whereas trade fairs cater to a vast, miscellaneous audience, where comparisons with the competition and acquiring market information prevail.

AW: Where have you organised such missions in the past 18 months?

VB: In 2014 we had incoming missions from Colombia, India, Iran
and Peru. We held workshops in Shanghai and in Ivanovo in Russia in April, in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia in July, and in both Hanoi and Hochiminh in November. So far this year, we’ve had incoming missions from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Pakistan. We led a further workshop in Hochiminh in April, followed by a full institutional mission to both Hochiminh and Hanoi in May, because Vietnam is currently one of the liveliest markets for textile machinery investments.

AW: Can you attribute increased sales directly from these activities, or is it more of a long-running process?

VB: It’s a process that’s impossible to quantify. It’s both a medium and long running process even if it’s not so rare that some orders are made during these events.

AW: What guidance are the potential machine buyers specifically looking for?

VB: Generally speaking, the potential buyers of machines want direct contacts with the management of Italian firms, to obtain in-depth knowledge, not just on the machinery’s technical specifications, but also the company’s history, its organisation and the business structure behind the design and engineering of textile machines.

AW: Will you have time to organise any further activities prior to ITMA 2015?

VB: We already have three incoming missions scheduled before ITMA, a first from companies from Central American countries – Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – followed by delegations from both Iran and Russia.

www.acimit.it