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 as many as one hundrad 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 several 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 the technology on display was high-end with focus on mature markets. While the majority of brands on display were from Japan, brands from China and Europe 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. “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.
JIAM threw a googly that ‘German retailers are actively looking to shift production back to their country’. With fashion changing very fast, it is increasingly becoming important for retailers to buy as close to the season as possible; buying locally takes just 6 weeks as against the average 16 weeks lead time from Asia. Again, sourcing locally would mean selling at original mark-ups with little need for markdowns, while holding very little or no inventory, both of which brings in greater profits.
It is further argued that retailers also save on custom duties payable and commissions paid to buying agents. Besides not having to pay tax for any of the shipments that move in and out of the country… Assuming that all these advantages surpass the ‘higher’ cost of production, which was the original reason for the shift in production to Asian countries and where now the cost of labour, infrastructure and logistics is on the rise…, it is time for the industry to introspect!
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. Drawing attention from India were teams from BRFL, Shahi Exports, Gokaldas Exports, Matrix Clothing, and a senior level team from Jockey to name a few.
