Other factors can also be taken into account e.g.:
A fair needs to evolve with the requirements of the market;
A strong local industry determines the attractiveness for participation;
Self-reliance in the long run allows a fair to last and possibly to grow, since sponsors may shift interest and change their field of support;
A proper fair organization gives a stamp of professionalism and reputation to a fair and to the sector;
Reliable infrastructures and facilities as well as a safe and attractive environment of the hosting country play an important role;
The cost of participation in a fair should be in line with what the fair can offer and with the participants’ expectations.
If the leather sector is taken as an example, most leather producing countries have made an attempt to organize international leather fairs, but only a few have been able to attract the industry and become an addition to existing fairs or a substitution of disappearing ones.
A look at some examples in the recent history of fairs in the leather sector illustrates how dynamic the context is and how changes occur.
From the business point of view it was the place where people from all over the world came to meet and do big business. It was unthinkable that a stakeholder, big or small, in the leather value chain would miss the SIC fair in Paris. SIC was a meeting place but also the most important market place from where a seller could return home with all stock sold and where a buyer was able to secure the supply from a company for several months to come. The market and its trend were established during the fair.
Prices of commodities could rise or fall during the event. Machine manufacturers brought their newest types of machines and chemical manufacturers showed the latest tanning formulas and products. Paris attractiveness added a lot to the success of the fair. In 1993 the fair was renamed Intersic and moved to an exhibition centre close to the airport in order to reduce costs.
The French organizer (SIC Group) focused on high quality leather and fashion rather than on mass production of basic quality leather, to meet the demand especially of the European industry.
Therefore Le Cuir à Paris in its fashion concept responded to the evolved needs of the industry and it now takes place in concomitance with other six fashion-related trade fairs, thus offering a unique event under the “Premiere Vision Pluriel” label.
The Italian leather industry staged its leather fairs in a number of places. The most renowned exhibition is certainly Lineapelle. The first edition was held in 1981 in Milan, inspired by the Preselezione Italiana Moda shows (Italian fashion preselection) which had been held in Florence since 1971.
Lineapelle moved to Bologna in 1986 and until today is the most important and largest leather fair in the world. Lineapelle is linked to the Italian union of leather industry, UNIC. In order to adapt itself to market requirements and reinforce its attractiveness, the fair has incorporated special sessions dedicated to materials’ fashion trends and forecast, with the capacity of influencing the market with leading edge product solutions due to the dominant position of the Italian leather industry in this respect.
Previews of leather designers’ works offered by Italian and European manufacturers to fashion brands and top-range buyers are also organized under the “Anteprima” label. The capacity of attracting a very large number of exhibitors and visitors was further strengthened by two additional fairs organized back-to-back to Lineapelle in the same exhibition park: Tanning-Tech (technology for tanning) and Simac (technology for the footwear industry). Now these two fairs, the largest in the world in their respective fields, organized by the Italian association of leather industry machinery producers, ASSOMAC, take place together with the autumn edition of Lineapelle .
The industry segment-based approach to fairs in Italy is demonstrated by the existence of two additional high-market exhibitions, Mipel and Micam, in Milan for leather goods and footwear respectively, complemented by the Expo Riva Schuh targeting lower segments of the market.
Around the same time of the decline of the Semaine International du Cuir (SIC), the Pan American Leather (PAL) fair was launched in 1996 in Miami by APFL, which attracted a large number of visitors for the first two editions. Afterwards, the fair fizzled out since it had little to offer in terms of global encounters, like the fairs in Paris or in Hong Kong (SAR).
Furthermore, the expenses for exhibitors at the fair were not sustainable compared with the business actually done. Miami was chosen as the point of gravity for the Americas hoping to bring the North and South American leather industries under one fair roof, but this did not work out as planned. It soon became clear that PAL was a local American event that attracted few international visitors. Although the United States had an important tanning and footwear industry at the time, apparently it did not have sufficient appeal to continue to attract a large number of visitors and faced serious competition in the continent from senior American leather fairs in Mexico (ANPIC) and Brazil (FIMEC).
ANPIC is the Mexican leather fair held since 1980 in the tanning cluster city of Léon. It is a biannual event covering the whole supply chain. Similarly, the Brazilian leather industry organizes a full value chain leather fair which is mainly a South American event held in Novo Hamburgo in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The tremendous expansion of major players in the worldwide leather industry, China and India, has determined the growing importance of trade fairs held in these two countries. In the People’s Republic of China the early Canton (Guandong) leather fair held during the 70s and 80s was more a trade place than a meeting place. Authorities established the sales prices of Chinese raw materials, mainly goatskins, for export to Europe based on deliberations with a selected group of traders in Europe before the fair.
As a consequence of liberalization measures a more commercial Shanghai leather fair was organized for the first time in 1989. With the Chinese leather industry becoming the most prominent supplier in the world, both the Shanghai and Guandong fairs have increasingly attracted a larger number of international visitors and exhibitors.
APLF, formerly the Asian Pacific Leather Fair, in Hong Kong (SAR) opened its doors in 1984 and was an immediate success. With the Chinese market growing in importance it quickly became an important competitor for the SIC fair and APLF became a steady star. The SIC organizers were wise and joined forces with the then Hong Kong (SAR) leather fair. The costs for participation of the APLF are quite high, but being the most important trading centre in the Far East and the gateway to the whole region, participants are numerous. The attractiveness of the place adds to motivation for participation.
The modern Indian leather industry believed it should have its own fair to promote the Indian industrial efforts. It is generally believed that leather shows and exhibitions in India are an innovation of the mid twentieth century, whereas the Madras Leather Fair was held as early as 1855. In 1964 the India Leather Technologists’ Association of the Southern Region decided to hold an all-India based leather exhibition in Madras and on an international scale every year.
The Madras Leather Fair became an annual event renamed the India International Leather Fair (IILF) – Chennai in 1985, organized by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in close collaboration with Council for Leather Exports (CLE) as the main co-sponsor, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Indian Shoe Federation (ISF) and Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers Association (IFLMEA). A steady growth of international visitors, as well as country groups and individual exhibitors, is recorded.
The Istanbul Deri Fuari (Istanbul leather fair) is an example of the capability to organize a successful event by using a niche of the market that is not covered. The fair is backed by a big local industry and is held close to its consumer market in Eastern Europe and the CIS. Started in 2005, it is an all- round fair where machine manufacturers and tanners exhibit along with garment manufacturers, who hold multiple fashion shows. Buyers especially from the CIS (Russian Federation and Caucasian countries account for almost 30% of the visitors) and Eastern Europe (about 18% of the visitors) attend this fair. The fair is typically a garment fair as about 70% of the exhibitors cover leather and fur garments.
The Meet in Africa initiative to create an all-African leather fair catered for a requirement that could develop the African leather industry. The project, funded by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI), was a combined effort of the International Trade Centre (ITC), the African Federation of Leather and Allied Industries (AFLAI), and the Société Internationale du Cuir (SIC). Meet in Africa, a biennial event moving from one country to the next, started in 1998 in Cape Town and it was a resounding success, proving the very positive response of the international market and the worthiness of the approach.
The last event was held in Khartoum in 2009. Meanwhile the Ethiopian leather industry association ELIA, with a growing local industry and strong move upwards in the value chain imposed by a precise national leather value chain strategy, launched its first All African Leather Fair (AALF) in 2008. The fair is slowly expanding and attracting progressively more foreign visitors, striving to become a true international trade fair.
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