16th ITMA Exhibition in Barcelona in 2011

ITMA 2011 will now start a day earlier than originally planned, announced show owner, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers (CEMATEX). It will be held from 22 to 29 September 2011 at the new Fira de Barcelona Gran Via venue in Barcelona, Spain.

 Barcelona is fully equipped to host congresses, conventions and exhibitions of various sizes, supported by more than 40,000 hotel rooms.

The world’s biggest and most established textile machinery exhibition in the world, ITMA is held every four years in Europe since 1951. The 100,000sqm net exhibition attracts over 1,400 international exhibiting companies.

ITMA is owned by CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers. MP International, organiser of ITMA ASIA 2001 and 2005, and co-organiser of ITMA ASIA + CITME 2008, is the appointed organiser of ITMA 2011.

CEMATEX Secretary General Miss Maria Avery said, “Barcelona offers excellent infrastructure and hospitality services will be very well-equipped to handle the vast requirements of the ITMA exhibition in 2011. The September dates are also likely to be very popular with our exhibitors and visitors as the climate in Barcelona at that time should be perfect.”

The General Manager of Fira de Barcelona, Mr Agustín Cordón, emphasised: "ITMA's celebration in Barcelona fits perfectly with the interest of our organisation in offering answers to companies' current needs, and to provide a logistical and organisational framework to host great international events of strategic interest."

The decision to appoint Singapore-based MP International (MPI) to organise ITMA 2011 was taken at a CEMATEX general assembly held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in June 2007.

CEMATEX president Edward Roberts said: “Fira de Barcelona is a very successful and very attractive location for exhibitors and visitors to ITMA. Barcelona is a very international, yet a compact city. It is 10 minutes from the centre of town to the fairground and10 minutes from the fairground to the airport. There are three subway lines that run into the fairground meaning the subway can be used to get to the fairground from any direction.”

Mr. Roberts added, “We have taken the decision to collaborate with an experienced partner like MPI, who is totally familiar with ITMA’s regulations and equally committed to achieve our objectives.”

The appointment is a milestone for MPI as it is the first Singapore-based professional exhibition organiser (PEO) to be appointed to organise the world’s biggest textile machinery show

The two successful collaborations already with MPI when they organised ITMA ASIA shows in 2001 and 2005 and also the co-organiser of the upcoming ITMA ASIA + CITME combined shows in Shanghai in 2008 is the testiment of the professionalism and dedication displayed by the MPI team and the excellent support they render.

ITMA in Spain is expected to provide a great boost to the country in general and the textile machinery industry of Spain in particular. Barcelona won the bid from the nine possible locations, including Milan, and CEMATEX jointly decided that Spain will be an attractive venue for visitors as well as exhibitors. The deciding factor for this decision could be the fact that until now, Spain has not had an exhibition centre large enough for the the biggest textile machinery exhibition in the world.

Spanish team eyes Barcelona ‘Olympia’ with high hopes

The 40 Spanish companies attending the biggest textile machinery fair in Munich, Germany in September showed their enthusiasm for the next celebration of this event in Barvelona 2011. ITMA Munich 2007 has made it clear the growth of the textile machinery industry: European and Spanish industries increased their confidence after having overcome the crisis by a good dea l of internationalisation, adaptation, innovation, flexibility and specialisation.

The Spanish sector exports 90% of its whole production and the companies have diversified their business and are today manufacturing custom-made machinery. “The sector has gone through a very difficult time, but a clear tendency towards improvement is currently being noticed. ITMA 2007 has finished with a very positive assessment regarding Spanish companies. We look to the future with optimism and the Spanish sector is very excited about the ITMA 2011 taking place in Barcelona for the first time, so we are provided with the necessary strength to keep growing as a sector,” says Joan Marty, president of Amec Amtex, the Spanish Association of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, included in Amec and full member of CEMATEX, the ITMA’s owner.

ITMA is the most important textile machinery and equipment fair in the world. The year it has been held from 13 to 20 September and 38 Spanish companies have taken part in it amongst a total of 1,400 exhibitors from 40 different countries. The Spanish industry has underlined the excellent facilities of the exhibition site of Messe Munich and the visitor’s quality. “Business closed in Munich prove that firms surviving to the crisis have made their best by turning their small dimensions into a competitive advantage. Spanish industry works with zero stock and our great mainstay is our capacity to manufacture custom-made machinery,” adds Marty.

The sector reorientates itself

The Munich ITMA has shown that adaptation, innovation, specialisation, quality and flexibility could define the transformation process of the Spanish textile mahcinery sector. Diversification towards ago-industry (meshes or packaging for fruits and sausages), health (bandages or surgical fabrics), aeronautics (works with fibreglass) and environment are some of the sectors chosen by Spanish textile machinery sector and they define the current option of Spanish companies i competitiveness. “It is not only untrue that the sector is dead, but Spain is currently one of the first world spinning machines, which is one of the most important sub-sectors,” states Feliu Marsal, director of the Sp Centre of the Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya (Catalonia Polytechnic University), one of the numerous in with which Amec has signed partnership agreements.