>> Business News August

TFL publishes every month business news with focus on the leather industry, on a worldwide basis.

New Shoe Fair in Leipzig

The shoe fairs in Leipzig/Schkeuditz will in future be organizing a third event. Dubbed Shoe Style, this will be staged on September 1 and 2 in parallel with the ordering days in the Leipzig SOC shoe ordering center. It is aimed first and foremost at suppliers with an early order closing date, so coming between the early ordering event Shoe Start (11/12 August) and the main ordering event Shoe Time (21-23 September). Brands applying to participate so far include SPM, Softclox, Fretz Men, Bruno Banani Footwear, Floris van Bommel, Desigual, Dessy, Pikolinos and and Les Tropeziennes.

Suite 9: new fair for footwear made in Italy

The international fashion world gathers in Düsseldorf from 28 to 30 July. Parallel to the ordering days the new “Italian Temporary Shoeroom Suite 9” will make its debut. More than 40 exclusive Italian footwear labels such as Area Forte, Attilio Giusti, Leombruni, Norma J. Baker, Kallistè, Kartell and Voile Blanche will be presenting their creations at the new event in the design hotel Melia. In this special setting trade visitors can form an early idea of the trends in the new spring/summer 2013 “Made in Italy” collection. Organizer of the new Suite 9 event is Honegger Gaspare S.r.l, the Italy-domiciled representative abroad for the Dusseldorf fair. Honegger is supported by the GDS.

I.L.M.: 230 exhibitors attending

A good 230 exhibitors have firmly committed to attend the I.L.M. Summer Styles leather goods fair to run from 22 to 24 September in Offenbach. Further interested firms are currently still on the waiting list, according to the organizers. In view of the extension works currently in progress at the exhibition site, it will be the end of July before it is possible to say which of the additional new sites will definitely be available for the I.L.M. Only then can the management be more specific as to whether it will be possible to use the new section C1, what the situation in the new entrance hall will be like, and what can take place in the adjoining Capitol. The construction work will be definitely completed in time for Winter Styles 2013, set to run from 9 till 11 March.

Asics positions brands more clearly

From next year Japanese sports footwear producer Asics intends to market all its lifestyle products only under the name Onitsuka Tiger. The Asics Sportstyle line is therefore being discontinued. In future the Asics brand will concentrate on the performance sector. By taking this step the company intends to position both brands more clearly on the market.

Inditex further expands its footwear business

Spanish trading group Inditex has doubled its footwear output over the past five years. The shoes are produced by the subsidiary Tempe, which in 2011 made a total of 48.93 million pairs. Sales totalled 746.62 million Euro, a growth of six percent versus the previous year. Tempe is responsible for the design and production of footwear for all Inditex store chains,including Zara and Dutti. Headquartered in Alicante, the company has a total of 1132 employees. Last year a new logistics center was erected, costing over 100 million Euro. On an area of 105000 square meters, up to 22000 pairs of shoes can be handled per hour. Besides its premises in Spain, Tempe runs offices in Mexico, Brazil, India, China and Vietnam.

Modacalzado and Simm are being merged

Spanish fashion fair Simm and the footwear and leather goods fair Modacalzado+Iberpiel are to be merged as from autumn 2013. The reason put forward is that shops are increasingly offering a “total look” comprising garments, footwear and accessories. A further factor is that buyers are tending to shorten their fair visits to save both time and money. The plan is to divide up the fair according to lifestyle worlds and wearing occasions. It is also intended to run the fair at the same time as the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid. The last Simm in February hosted 800 exhibitors and 16776 trade visitors. Modacalzado in March attracted 600 exhibitors and almost 7500 buyers.