JIAM 2012 lived up to its original glory with many visitors from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and China. It was not a surprise since most of the visitors were on a sponsored trip from the participants. It was an open secret that Brother, Juki, Tajima had all doled out travel and stay for their ‘critical’ customers. Only YIN, China came on record to admit that they have invited 100 of their customers to Japan to showcase to them their Japanese presence since the company also manufactures in Japan to maintain the quality. “With the current market situation, the organizers were worried about visitation, but we guaranteed them 400 sq. metre space for display with more than 100 visitors from China alone. Such fairs are very important and this kind of support we will be giving to CISMA also,” said Yin Zhiyong, President, Yin Science and Technology.
As anticipated by StitchWorld, the technology on display was high-end with focus on mature markets. While the majority of brands on display were from Japan, Chinese and European brands were also visible though in small numbers. Most of the European brands either participated as a part of a country pavilion or with Japanese partners. The focus for most was on sewing and finishing equipment in particular. Companies like Macpi and Vibemac were extremely happy to be present at the fair, as they had not expected such high visitation turnout from their target markets of Bangladesh and India. The companies benefited from the visitors who were also the right decision makers. “It has been a good outing for us as we were able to meet many of the companies who are our customers from the Indian sub-continent,” said Enrico Guerreschi, Global Sales Director, Vibemac.
Drawing attention from India were Aman Agrawal, BRFL; Dolly Nenwani, Shahi Exports; Arun Sahu, Gokaldas Exports; Adarsh Sharan, Matrix Clothing; Sharad Kalyani, Kalyani Clothing; RK Sahu, Sahu Exports; and a senior level team from Jockey. These decision makers were not there to add glamour at the show, but were actually seen there interacting with technology suppliers. Most of them were representing companies looking at expansion even in this downturn, like GE, which is deviating from its earlier promoter’s policy of using low value machines for basic operations to change its machine to direct drive with under bed trimmer. Everyone knows that Shahi is geared for major expansion at its Shimoga plant near Bangalore. We all know how happy-go-lucky Aman Agrawal is, a serial expansion expert, always on the lookout for a deal!
Undoubtedly, Bangladesh was the fervour at JIAM. I am sure the major chunk of business for the sewing machine manufacturers is coming from Bangladesh and they were very happy with the presence of some of the big groups such as Standard, Pacific, Epic Group and many more. Representatives from big groups from Sri Lanka like Brandix, Mas Holding and Hirdaramani to name a few were seen at the fair. Sri Lanka consultants, now working in India like Chandrajith Wickramasinghe (CJ), CEO, Corrigo Consultancy and Gayan Ruhunage, President, Apparel Manufacturing, Exodus Futura Knit were also eagerly reviewing latest technologies on display.
