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22/01/2007
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Pitti Bimbo 64 concludes with growth
Major increases among foreign buyers
The 64th edition of Pitti Bimbo (19-21 January 2007, Florence, Fortezza da Basso) concluded with a strong increase in the number of visitors from abroad. The final figures on attendance show a 6.1% rise in the number of foreign buyers. On the whole, there were 10,479 visitors as opposed to the 10,310 at the January 2006 edition. Italian attendance held its own, with 7,014 buyers, which is 30 fewer than last January, but 15 more stores were represented this time.
The opinions among the stands at the Fortezza da Basso were positive and very satisfied. The exhibitors met all the important clients who came to the Fortezza wanting to make concrete business contacts, and volumes exceeded those of the last winter season. Throughout the pavilions the research and quality content of the collections was high, so high that they rank right next to adult fashion. “We felt the strong positive spirit that is traversing the entire industry,” says Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine – children’s fashions are growing well, you can see it from sales figures, from domestic consumer spending and from exports”. The energy that exports are injecting into infants’ and children’s wear was clear from the foreign markets which attended the show. “The number of buyers from emerging markets, such as China has grown consistently; in fact the number of Chinese buyers has more than doubled, Russia rose by 20.5% and all the Eastern European countries also increased, says Agostino Poletto, Marketing and Development Manager – “but even the performance on the part of the show’s main markets is also very significant: Spain (+ 10,7%), Japan (+ 37,3%), United States (+ 6%) and Holland (+ 13%)”.
As to the general ranking, Spain is in the lead (413 versus 373 in January 2006), followed by Germany (298 vs. 315), Greece (261 vs. 235), Great Britain (259 vs. 279), France (251 vs. 265), Holland (166 vs. 147), Russia (165 vs. 137), Japan (151 vs. 110), Turkey (151 vs. 137), Belgium (140 vs. 128), United States (105 vs. 99), Switzerland (89 vs. 99), Korea (69 vs. 56) and Portugal (47 vs. 73).
Once again the runway shows were closely monitored by the press and the buyers confirming the important role they play in promoting and providing information about the merchandise. According to Raffaello Napoleone, "The fashion show formula works well for the companies that decide to invest in this form of presentation. I believe that eight shows is a good number, we must not inflate the program, we must maintain a good balance with the presentations at the stands. And we must maintain a good balance between the individual brands’ goals of entertainment and communication and the overall image of Pitti Bimbo, that is always based on product quality and the freshness and spontaneity of children. We are working with experts in the field to draw up the guidelines that the firms who want to hold runway shows in Florence will have to use when staging shows with children to highlight the playful, happy spirit of these performances – which is what they really are ".
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(Источник информации: Pitti Immagine srl)
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