From the Sector

Curtains will open next week for Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition 2025, taking place from 11 – 13 March, and offering the home and contract sectors a comprehensive selection of products with a strong emphasis on smart bedding and sustainability. Alongside innovative fringe events, over 350 exhibitors from four countries and regions are ready to convene in Hall 5.2 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) to showcase an impressive range of products, including bedding, duvets, pillows, towelling, carpets, rugs, and more.

Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition 2025 will be held concurrently with Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition, Yarn Expo Spring, CHIC and PH Value at the National Exhibition and Convention Center. The fair is organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Home Textile Association (CHTA).

Key exhibitors to display extensive range of home textile advancements
Throughout the show floor, various exhibitors will showcase their innovations across the sector, including:

• 3M China Limited (USA) – as one of the first thermal material brands to emphasise thinness, its product 3M™ Thinsulate™ is an insulating fabric made from a blend of synthetic fibres, including polyester. Its fibres have a diameter of around 2 – 5 micrometres, making it much smaller than the other synthetic fibres used for insulation.
• CoolisT Life Technology Co Ltd (China)  – CoolisT Group specialises in bio-based biodegradable sponges, including bio-based Zero Foam and Hydrophilic Foam. Utilising advanced technology, its products are certified by USDA, OK bio-based, and TÜV AUSTRIA.
• Changzhou Huaji Wool Co Ltd (China) – the company produces wool and linen raw materials, with proprietary patented equipment and technology for shrink-resistant wool and wool strips. Its innovative wool products have received OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 and RWS Responsible Wool certifications.
• Fujian Anran Textile Technology Co Ltd (China) – holding over 50 patents and multiple certifications, it specialises in 3D spacer materials, fabrics, and various products.
• Jiangyin Hongliu Bedsheet Co Ltd (China) – the company’s bedding set is crafted from high-quality nylon and spandex, offering a soft and comfortable texture. It features moisture-wicking and quick-drying properties while maintaining an elegant appearance.
• Shinwon Felt (Korea) – utilising a needle punching technique, the company regenerates plastic waste into felt products. Its sustainable product lines, certified by GRS, contribute significantly to addressing plastic waste issues.
• Tela's Design (Portugal) – a design studio specialising in home textile designs and decorations. Its core principles – colour, design, and detail – have established Tela as one of the leading and most successful textile design firms globally.

Uncovering trends driving change in home textiles
In addition to a robust lineup of exhibitors, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles will host various fringe events to keep attendees informed about emerging developments, trends, and key insights, including:

• Timeless and Transformative Colour Celebrating the Rich Diversity of Modern Living for 2026: held by Pantone Color Institute, participants can experiment with various styles, from industrial to rustic, and explore the vibrant colour palettes for home interiors in 2026.
• Sleeping Aid Summit 2025: one of the most vital yet often overlooked aspects of wellness is achieving quality sleep. At the summit, sleep technology will once again take centre stage, providing in-depth insights into sleep quality and exploring related business opportunities.
• Green and Low Carbon Forum: a growing number of individuals are opting for natural materials and sustainable textiles in their bedrooms and homes. The forum will highlight sustainability and the future direction of the industry.

As part of an ongoing investment programme ensuring it remains at the forefront of advanced technology for carpet production, West Yorkshire, UK-headquartered Phoenox Textiles has recently installed a new two-metre-wide shearing line supplied by BTMA member Sellers Textiles Engineers.

Phoenox, which has been family owned since its foundation in 1954, develops original creative flooring design concepts for retail brands. Its products are sold through high street outlets, department stores and volume retailers across Europe and North America, in addition to substantial online and catalogue-driven business. All told, the company’s 24-hour parcel service dispatches some 3.2 million orders every year.

Operating from two manufacturing sites, Phoenox manufactures an annual 1.7 million metres of flooring in the UK. Over a combined area of 1,700,000 square metres, the two plants are equipped for tufting, backcoating, cloth printing and finishing along with automated cutting, sewing and packing.

In addition to the Sellers shearing line, other recent investments for the UK operations have included three new advanced tufting machines and a high-speed Sellers backcoating line equipped to handle widths of up to two metres and coat at six metres per minute. Washable and dyeable foams and eco-friendly applications in different weights are applied for many product areas.

The company’s state-of-the-art Chromo jet printing process line is meanwhile the only one of its kind in the UK, with its 256 jets making possible designs in up eight colours per pattern. With sustainability very much at the forefront of the company’s approach, Phoenox recycles most of its paste and inks and uses organic options wherever possible, as well as recycled water.

“We operate a piece dye colour cloth programme and can dye nylon and cotton with weights of up to 500kg per load, working with direct, organic, vat and reactive dyes,” says Mosley. “We also offer computerised and weighed commission dyeing. Computerised automated cutting machines and photocell pattern recognition enable us to cut at high speed in most cloth densities. With finishing and sewing though, it’s all about the detail, and our team have years of experience and hand-finish our products on traditional high-speed machines.”

The new Sellers Hybrid Shearing Cylinder can provide a competitive edge for manufacturers which is currently being proven in the field, including at Phoenox. It’s one of a number of new innovations BTMA members are planning to showcase at next year’s ITMA exhibition in Milan.

•   Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII Printers for Faster, High-Quality Textile Printing

Amsterdam - Mimaki Europe, a leading manufacturer of inkjet printers and cutting systems, announces today that Pakistani textile company, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd., is leveraging multiple Mimaki Tiger industrial textile printing units to take its business to the next level. As a result of on the outstanding performance and process optimisation delivered by the Mimaki digital printing equipment, the company has been able to adapt to changes in the textile industry and is now projected to reinforce its market position and expand its capabilities in high-quality textile production.

Headquartered in Faisalabad, Punjab province – the second largest textile hub in Pakistan –, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. mainly serves the high fashion industry and uses its cutting-edge technology to print about 100,000 metres daily. Faced with recent challenges in the global textile market, management at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. embarked on innovating the company’s business model, shifting from conventional to digital printing. In doing so, the company invested in Mimaki’s advanced industrial textile technology and installed three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII units. “We were – and still are – experiencing a massive transformation in the printing segment, with brands demanding high quality products delivered within short deadlines. This change in our customers’ requirements urged us to move to digital printing,” says Muhammad Asif, CEO at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. “Our choice has already proved sound as our brand-new Tiger-1800B MkII printing systems have enabled us to cope with the high standards of the fashion industry in terms of both quality and delivery times. In addition, we have been able to gradually enhance our production processes in a cost-effective way.”

The Tiger-1800B MkII is Mimaki’s flagship industrial volume textile printer, available either in dye sublimation configuration for transfer printing or with reactive ink for direct-to-textile printing. Of the three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII solutions operating at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd., two are equipped with reactive inks, enabling the company to directly print onto natural fibres such as cotton and linen, as well as onto manufactured cellulose fibres, including rayon and nylon. The third Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII features sublimation inks serves the ever-growing printed polyester market, allowing the company to strategically diversify its product portfolio.

“There are several features of the Tiger-1800B MkII that benefit our production and our business at large. The MAPS (Mimaki Advanced Pass System), just to name one, prevents banding and colour-shifting to deliver a higher standard of quality, while the NRS (Nozzle Recovery System) provides uninterrupted production, minimising downtime and ensuring superior results. The sticky belt system together with the large-size ink tanks (with a capacity of 10kg) and the high-performance software RIP TxLink3 are some of the other features that make these printers efficient, user-friendly and reliable,” says Asif.

Asif concludes, “Looking at the future, our aim is to set up a print department featuring only Mimaki’s technologies. We are already considering the next steps to make this possible, knowing that we can count on the support of Signtrade, Mimaki’s dealer in the region and our trustworthy partner.”

Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. was founded in 1992 by Muhammad Asif’s father Haji Muhammad Yousaf and his partner Haji Rasheed Ahmad. Established as a dyeing company, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. was able to gradually diversify the business over the years to become an advanced textile printing specialist. Today, the company is an established provider to the high fashion industry in Pakistan and on an international level.

“The story of Moti Fabrics is incredibly inspiring. Belonging to a region with such rooted textile printing heritage, the company has been able to embrace a new, challenging business model in order to stay at pace with the changing demand from the textile industry and has succeeded,” comments Ronald van den Broek, General Sales Manager at Mimaki Europe. “Customers like Moti Fabrics make us proud as they demonstrate how our advanced Mimaki Tiger industrial textile series can be the enabling technology for those textile companies planning the shift from conventional to digital printing.”