Première Vision reveals textile, leather production barometer

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Sep 14, 2016

The textile and leather trade show, Première Vision, has revealed its textile and leather industry barometer.

Première Vision's two barometers compared the changes in production volumes for Première Vision exhibitors in 2015, to that of the overall textile and leather market, a figure obtained by Unido and published by the United Nations.

Over the last year, textile quantities produced by Première Vision exhibitors increased 2.1%, close to the 2.8% recorded by Textile World Production. By economies, exhibitors from emerging markets claimed an increase of 9.8%, compared to a market gain of 4.2 %, while exhibitors hailing from mature economies noted a 1.6% gain, compared to a 1.1% dip across the whole developed market. Asian exhibitors, meanwhile, witnessed a 5.9% increase in 2015, as production slumped in Europe, down 2.8 %.

"It's important, however, to interpret the figures because, across Europe, revenues remained stable," said Gilles Lasbordes, chief executive of Première Vision Paris. "This means that if production is decreasing but revenue levels are maintained, these firms have reached a more favourable product offering and bettered their prices, to the detriment of production."

By material, Première Vision Leather exhibitors strengthened production by 3.9 %, compared to only 0.9% on the market whole. Emerging market leather producers do not attend the trade show, but production in these nations gained 2.9%. However, exhibitors from developed nations were largely split. Première Vision producers recorded 3.9% in growth in 2015, compared to a global market drop of 4.3%.

Europe managed, however, to limit the impact of its production volume decrease (-2.8%) when converted to sales (-1%). Asian exhibitors residing in developed market also managed to maintain their revenue (0.8%, in dollars), while emerging market producers saw an increase (+17.1%, in dollars).

"The figures confirm that, in textiles and as in leather, there is a real premium in value-added materials, which explains why the production of our exhibitors grew faster than their markets," concluded Gilles Lasbordes. "These are very encouraging results in a year marked by a negative global consumer market," added the chief executive.

"Beyond the health of textile workers and tanners, if one assumes they represent their respective markets, this can give us a good indication of the health of their clients. Which, added to other data, might be illuminating on the operations of fashion companies in the coming seasons. And then, the question is open for other types of products to complete this analysis," said Lasbordes.