Pakistan’s leading shoe-making companies participated in a three days footwear fair of Expo Riva Schuh from January 14-17 in Italy under the aegis of Pakistan Footwear Manufacturers Association PFMA) to have a preview of fashion collections, gather orders, acquire new international clients and have peep into innovation within the sector.
Led by Lt. Col (Retd) Ahmad Fawad Farooq, Secretary General – PFMA, the participating companies got ideal opportunities to interact with exhibitors and visitors besides exploring new avenues for their business expansion through international collaboration.
“Expo Riva Schuh has become a dynamic and interactive network that allows to meet multiple exhibition needs, from those typical of the exhibition market to one-to-one meetings,” said Lt. Col (Retd) Ahmad Fawad Farooq, adding that the management of the fair honoured only PFMA representative to accompany their officials team at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
UE Pvt Ltd,Service Industries Ltd, EPCT, Firhaj, Starlet, Shafi Pvt Ltd and KTM Footwear were the participating footwear-making companies from Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s exhibitors got a fair share of attention from the shoe enthusiasts as they got a complete preview of new fashion trends in Pakistan and plan orders well in advance besides promptly identifying trends and changes in the footwear market,” Lt. Col (Retd) Ahmad Fawad Farooq said, adding that this platform allowed participating companies find suppliers by destination, price or country of origin.
He said that Expo Riva Schuh provided Pakistani exhibitors a golden chance to meet with the major world production clusters and get vast international offer of their product categories other than suggesting different ways of conducting business through meetings and exchanges. He said that meetings with Indian shoe-makers were also very fruitful as they said that they would happily take part in any such event organized by Pakistan in Dubai. “We may arrange such an event after consultations with our counterparts in Bangladesh, India and other regional bodies,” he said.
READ MORE: Mobile Assembly in Pakistan is being closed by major companies
Exhibitors at the fair gathered plenty of new contacts, creating interaction between national and international workers. Some of these contacts were subsequently transformed into orders, resulting in sales that are surely an important sign of recovery for the footwear sector.
“My experience of Expo Riva Schuh was positive. We made a lot of contacts, some of which resulted in serious collaboration with unternational shoe-manufacturers,” said Lt. Col (Retd) Ahmad Fawad Farioq.
Great protagonists in the footwear, leather goods and accessories industry, institutional bodies, consortiums and private realities at national and international level companies from 41 countriesincluding Italy, Germany, Spain, France, UK and others, and visitors from over 100 different countries participated in the fair.
