Lineapelle, which takes place twice yearly in Milan, replaces the APLF in Hong Kong in the ILM survey results as the most popular industry trade fair among leather manufacturers according to the 2022 results. This is not surprising given that the APLF has not taken place since 2019 in Hong Kong and is unlikely to take place until 2024 at the earliest due to ongoing Chinese governmental restrictions around Covid-19.
APLF Dubai, the trade show which took place last March as a partial replacement for the Hong Kong show, was second among tanners in the survey.
ILM also asked tanners if they were planning to attend trade fairs for the remainder of 2022 and also in 2023. 64% of those surveyed said that they had or would attend a trade fair in 2022 and that 80% said they would be exhibiting or visiting an industry trade event of some kind in 2023. There is certainly growing confidence among tanners that visiting live events is safe in a post-pandemic world and with overseas visitor numbers of all types up by 73% at the Lineapelle trade fair in Milan September 20-22 compared with the same edition in 2021, it would underline that the leather industry is keen to meet up again. In fact, the pandemic has confirmed one trend, it is very difficult to sell finished leather online and most buyers still prefer to be in contact with the material. 574 tanners took part in the September 2022 edition of Lineapelle.
The full ILM 2022 Tanner Business Confidence Survey results can be found here for ILM subscribers or they are published in the September/October 2022 print edition. To subscribe to ILM email Kate Tornelli kate@edifydigitalmedia.com for more information.
