Despite the demonetization drive, which has affected the domestic and export industry sentiment, the Yarn Fabric & Accessories Trade Show; YFA 2016 which was held from November 23-26, 2016 in New Delhi, saw visitor numbers climbing 15 per cent over the previous edition to 8,598 buyers. A majority of the 148 exhibitors participating at the show also expressed satisfaction with the numbers as well as the quality of the buyers.

As against around 100 exhibitors in the 2015 edition, there were 148 participating companies at YFA 2016. The highlights of the exhibition were fashion shows held throughout the day on all the days as well as in the evening. There was also a Chinese pavilion, in which 36 Chinese exhibitors showcased innovative yarns, fabrics and garment accessories.

The exhibitor list included the who’s who of the Indian and global textile industry from the textile value-chain beginning from fibres till garment accessories, including the likes of Indo Rama Synthetics, Bhilosa Industries, Vardhman Textiles, Winsome Textiles, Ganesha Ecosphere, Kudu Knit Fab, Asahi Kasei Corporation, RSWM Ltd, Nahar Industrial Enterprises, TT Ltd, Nimbark Fashions, Everflow Petrofils, V P Tex, Meher International, Textrends, Sogo Fashion, National Textile Corporation, Gloster Ltd., Madeira India, Uflex Ltd. and many others.

These companies exhibited and a few even launched the most innovative and latest developments in value-added textile products like speciality fibres, multifunctional yarns, mélange yarns, spandex yarn, embroidery yarn, bamboo fabrics, modal fabrics and several unique garment accessories.

Among the visitors who visited YFA 2016, included decision makers like Sourcing Head’s, Purchase Manager’s, Head Merchandiser’s, Sales Head’s and Country Manager’s of the renowned buying houses and export houses in addition to the visitors from composite mills, spinning mills, knitters, weavers, yarn agents, trading houses, designers, retail chains, etc.

YFA Trade Show 2016 New Delhi witnessed the buying houses like H&M, GAP, TRIBURG, Decathlon, Marubeni India, Impulse, ITOCHU India, Alliance, TQM Global Buying, NEXT Sourcing, JC Penney, Francis Wacziarg, New Times India, Li & Fung, CMD Buying Services and many more.

Also YFA Trade Show 2016 New Delhi witnessed the teams of large number of exporters and domestic brands such as Shahi Exports, Pearl Global, Boutique International, Gupta Exim, ITC Ltd., Shree Bharat International, Dhruv Global, Radnik Exports, Texport Syndicate, Genus Apparels, Graffiti Exports, Orient Craft, Orient Fashion, Madan Trading Co., Dulari Exports, Chelsea Mills, SEL Manufacturing, Grasim Bhiwani Textiles, JCT Ltd., Alps Industries, Ginni International, Numero Uno Clothing, Blackberry’s, Arvind Ltd., Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, Cantabil Retail, Myntra Designs, Sharman Shawls, Shingora Textiles, Bonjour, Vero Moda, Maral Overseas and many more at the four day exhibition.

These buyers came from across India from various textile and apparel hubs like Delhi & NCR, Ludhiana, Panipat, Bhilwara, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, Kanpur, Meerut, Banaras, Surat, Tirupur and Northern India, which includes Punjab, Haryana, etc. There were also foreign buyers from Syria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Brazil, Dubai, Argentina, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Korea and Iran.

Speaking about his experience, Mr. Maheshwari, Director at Nimbark Fashions Ltd. said, “Despite the currency crisis, we have had genuine as well as decision makers visiting our booth. We also have been able to make new contacts through this show.”

Mr. Pinkesh Jain, CMD of Everflow Petrofils added, “We are happy and satisfied with our participation at the YFA 2016 show. We have seen a steady stream of buyers visiting our stall, not just from Delhi or North India, but also other parts of India, which includes, buying houses, exporters, domestic brands etc.”

“We met many new as well as existing buyers. Most of all, it was satisfying to once again, revive relations with buyers who used to purchase from our mills earlier. We send our best wishes for the success of the next show in 2017,” Mr. Pankaj Bhardwaj, AVP (Yarn Marketing) at Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd.

Mr. Takeshi Iitaka, Manager (Cupro Sales) at Asahi Kasei Corporation, Japan also added, “Overall, we are satisfied and happy with our presence at the YFA show as we have had a good number of buyers visiting our stall. Our fibre products have been well received by buyers and most of those who visited our stall, were genuine and technically knowledgeable visitors, so it was a pleasure interacting with them.”

“We are producers of various qualities of yarns and are participating for the first time at the YFA Show. It is a good exhibition as we met a lot of existing, old and also several new buyers. We have had genuine and new visitors visiting our stall, due to which, we are satisfied which our participation at the show,” Mr. S M Nahata, Vice President (Marketing), Winsome Textile Industries stated.

Mr. Luv Jain, from RSWM Ltd., New Delhi observed, “We had a good experience at the YFA 2016 show. The response has been very encouraging for us, as we also met new buyers, who came from various parts of the country like Kanpur, Mumbai, Ludhiana, etc. I am sure this show will give the much needed boost to the textile industry.”

Ms. Alka Maurya, Director Marketing, Ganesha Ecosphere Ltd., Kanpur said, “Ganesha Ecosphere is a manufacturer of recycled polyester fibre, yarns and fabrics. The show was awesome for us. We got a great response for our brand Rivivera. There were many buyers who were looking for recycled fibres, yarns or fabrics and we are certain to receive orders from many of them in the near future.”

“Our experience of the show has been good and we are very happy that we participated at YFA 2016. We had a good number of buyers visiting our stall. We met many buyers from buying houses, exporters, etc and also from foreign countries,” said Ms. Tina Zhang, Hubei Jinghua Group from China.

Among visitors and buyers who came to show, I came across three new yarn and fabric developments, Mr. NC Ray, Asst Vice President (R&D), Vardhman Textiles said, “My experience has been good. However, I was looking forward to a bigger show. Nevertheless, I came across three new yarn and fabric developments. I am very glad I have visited the YFA 2016 show.”

“We came here looking for yarns, fabrics as well as accessories. Our experience has been very good. This visit will help us source all these raw materials for our manufacturing unit. The YFA Show has proved to be a one-stop platform for all our sourcing needs,” Mr. Varun Bhasin, VT Lifestyle, New Delhi, which is an apparel sourcing company and which has recently set up its own manufacturing unit added.

According to Ms. Mughda, Founder, Krityum, New Delhi, she had a great time, as she came across new fabrics, which Krityum has been seeking since a long time and that was really a great experience and look forwards to again visiting the next edition. Ms. Mughda came to YFA 2016 mainly to see new and unique fabrics, as their customers keep demanding new products.

“We are yarn merchants and my experience has been very good at the YFA 2016 show. I came here looking for innovative and new yarns and I was able to find a good variety of yarns at the show like at stalls of Bhilosa Industries, etc. I am glad I came here and will surely visit the next edition too,” Mr. Sanchit Mittal from Neelkanth Agencies, New Delhi stated.

Mr. Anilkumar Ballar from Nilax Textrend Pvt. Ltd., Surat, who is a weaver came to YFA 2016 to see new yarns and fabrics and came across fabric samples made from innovative yarns at stalls of RSWM and Nimbark. “After seeing the sample fabrics at the stalls of the companies, we too now have interest in weaving those fabrics and may buy yarns from which the fabric samples have been produced,” Mr. Ballar observed.

A textile conference in association with TIT-Bhiwani and the Textile Association of India (TAI) Delhi was also arranged on the sidelines of day-1 of the show. The first panel discussion was on ‘Growth & Prospects of Handloom Industry, while the second panel discussion was on `Make in India – Innovation in Textiles`. This was followed by a presentation by Prof. Rajendrakumar Anayath, Director, TIT Bhiwani on ‘Beyond Engineering: Emergent Materials & the next Interface`.

‘Titoba’, an alumnus meet, with a gathering of more than 400 top industry professionals, in association with TIT Bhiwani and again the Textile Association of India (TAI) Delhi was also organized.

“We thank all the participating exhibitors as well as those who visited the show for making this second edition of YFA extremely successful. The 2016 edition saw participation of 148 exhibitors as against 100 in 2015. The show was visited by 8,598 buyers, up by 15 percent compared to those came in 2015, which is a considerable high number at a time, when there is a currency crunch,” the organizer duo of Abhishek Sharma and Ankur Goel said.

“As in the earlier edition, this time too, we have noted all the observations made by exhibitors and visitors and will implement them in the 2017 edition, to make participation of exhibitors and visits of buyers more successful. We look forward to welcoming back all participating exhibitors and the buyers for the YFA 2017 show too,” they stated.