Asia Pacific Leather Fair (APLF) – Materials, Manufacturing and Technology, which was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 6-9, have released their post show results. Exhibitors were said to be impressed with the business results and agreed that the fair again created a good platform in bringing suppliers and buyers from both East and West.
According to the in-depth survey conducted during the fair, over 70% of exhibitors were satisfied with the quality and quantity of buyers and over 50% of them indicated ‘Excellent’ as the overall comments on the event. Flavio Alberto Lucchese from The Centre for Brazilian Tanning Industries (CICB), Brazil, commented: ‘Every year APLF becomes more and more important to our tanneries.’ Another satisfied exhibitor was Abbas Torkaman of Amin Leather, Iran. He said: ‘APLF2005 is a very positive edition and so we will return next year!’ Positive comments also came from Timmy Cheung of Wing Yip Metal Accessories, Hong Kong. He said: ‘We got terrific results this year. A prestigious Italian brand has already placed an order with us.’ And Ms Helena Li of Wenzhou lmitation Leather, China, also said: ‘This is the seventh time we have exhibited at APLF. It is a very important platform for us to promote our brands as well as to meet with new overseas clients.’
This year, the fair attracted 27,392 visitors from 91 countries and regions (figures are examined by PricewaterhouseCoopers). Of these, over 90% were decision-makers titled engineer, merchandiser & manager or above. Yasunori Tanaka, CEO & president of the Naigai Corporation, Japan, commented: ‘As a manufacturer of gloves, it is by no means easy to find suitable leather materials for my production. Here at APLF I have met a new supplier of deer skins in the US, and placed orders for finished leather. I would definitely like to come to the APLF show again next year.’ Another satisfied buyer was D Hemant Kumar from Lakshmidas Dwarkadas & Co, India, who said: ‘To us, APLF is the most international fair and it provides a convenient platform to meet leather trade professionals from around the world under one roof!’
In view of the ever increasing number of Asia Pacific countries in the global leather industry it is not surprising that 55% of the total trade visitors were from the Asia Pacific region. Hong Kong based companies were also well represented with an additional 28% of the visitors. Europe accounted for 9% of the visitors and the Americas 6%. The top ten visiting countries & regions were Mainland China (5,867), India (2,020), Korea (1,832), Taiwan (1,431), Japan (1,397), USA (966), Italy (648), Thailand (443), Bangladesh (422) and Australia (375).
Fair Dates for 2006: The next APLF – Materials, Manufacturing and Technology will be held from March 28 – 31, 2006. at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. **Important: The Rugby World Cup Sevens 2006 will be held from March 31 to April 2, 2006, at the Hong Kong Stadium, the hotel accommodation is very tight during this period and APLF strongly recommends participants to make hotel reservations as early as possible.
For fair details, please contact: Ms Perrine Ardouin, senior event manager at email: perrine@cmpasia.com
