FESPA Print Census #SixTrends: 5. Textile takes off!

FESPA's Print Census surveyed more than 1000 businesses around the world to deliver key insights into where the industry is heading. 

Anyone who visited the FESPA 2015 Global Expo in Cologne in May could hardly fail to notice the dominance of textile applications throughout the halls, not just in the FESPA Fabric area of the exhibition.

That’s a trend that’s clearly reflected in the findings of the FESPA Print Census, which reports a changing mix of increasingly customised products with textile applications leading the charge.

81% of those surveyed are seeing growth in textile, and it’s apparent that digital printing technology is the driver for this exciting development. Here’s one example statistic that vividly illustrates both the scale and speed of the digitisation of textile printing: over half of respondents expect digitally produced garments to become an important alternative to traditional screen printing in the next two years.

Printers are not only paying lip service to textile as a growth application, but putting their money where their mouth is. Textile printers feature prominently among investment plans, with over a fifth of respondents specifically focussing spend in this area, supported by 12% planning to acquire thermal transfer equipment.

As we wrote in our first Print Census #SixTrends blog, optimism (which is running high in our sector) comes from confidence. Where textile is concerned, we’re committed to helping printers to understand the opportunities and to make the right technology investments to profit from this growth trend.

Across each of the three key textile categories – garment, décor and industrial – through our expanding international series of FESPA Digital Textile Conferences, we’re sharing knowledge and best practice and offering opportunities to network with the printers and suppliers who are at the vanguard of these markets.

The launch of Printeriors at FESPA 2015 Global Expo created a new showcase for decorative printed textiles, while our established FESPA Fabric feature event gives visitors to our exhibitions a focus for their thoughts on developments in garment printing and decoration.

Infotrends, our partner in gathering and analysing the FESPA Print Census data, predicts that by 2018 the textile print market will be worth $5.8 billion, so it’s inevitably a sector that will receive more intense focus from FESPA and our printer community in the next couple of years. Watch this space…

See and share the FESPA Print Census #SixTrends Infographic.

The FESPA Print Census is a global research project undertaken by FESPA in partnership with Infotrends to understand developments in the wide format, screen and digital print community. The Print Census was funded through FESPA’s Profit for Purpose programme, which reinvests revenues from FESPA’s global events to support printers worldwide with insights, best practice and networking opportunities.

The Census was conducted from May 2014 to April 2015, and surveyed over 1200 respondents in 64 countries, both face-to-face and online.

FESPA is sharing the salient trends from the Print Census openly, but the detailed 39-page FESPA Census report is a member-only publication. To receive a copy, you need to be a member of your national FESPA Association. Contact your local association today.