In recent
years, it attracts our attention that Asian buyers visit IOFT. Some of you might
have seen that numbers of Asian buyers had business meetings with exhibitors
on-site eagerly.
In fact,
this is one of the projects “Premium Buyer Invitation Program” that the Show
Management has been working on for several years.
Show
Management invites those Asian premium buyers of eyewear shops to contribute to
increase of exhibitor’s sales, as we have heard that Asian economy, especially
Chinese economy, is growing fast and Japanese eyewear with higher quality and also
stylish European eyewear are sold well in Asia.
Every
year, Show Management staffs fly to each country around two months before the
show and visit company by company. They explain the attraction of IOFT to the
premium buyers and they willingly made a promise to visit Japan.
This
year, Show Management staffs visited Taiwan,
China and Korea from the
middle of August to the end of August. Then, we report on a part of these
visits.
[Visit to
Taiwan]
This
time, staffs of IOFT Show Management, Mr. Suzuki and Ms. Ohmichi, visited Taiwan.
First,
they went to a very stylish eyewear shop “SEE’S LIGHT”.
The brand has 50 shops
in many parts of Taiwan.
Mr. Suzuki and Ms. Ohmichi met the president Mr. Bison Huang. In the stylish
shop, there are a full of European/American eyewear products, as the shop is an
agent of European brands. He said that since he has not handle Japanese eyewear
yet, he’d like to purchase it at IOFT, looking around the show actively.
 |
| [from left:the President Mr. Huang, Mr.Suzuki, Ms,Ohmichi] |
SEE’S
LIGHT
Also, Mr.
Suzuki and Ms. Ohmichi met Mr. John Chang, a manager of a retail shop, JINJU
EYEWEAR.
They have 10 shops, mainly in Kaohsiung
and it is handling Japanese eyewear such as JAPONISM. Mr. Chang said that he
looks forward to coming to IOFT, as he can see Japanese eyewear and also luxury
eyewear which is highly in demand all at once there. Especially JINJU has
already dealt with manufactures in Sabae and he will visit IOFT to look for new
brands. At IOFT, lots of fantastic eyewear will be exhibited. May he have
wonderful meetings!
 |
| [with the Manager of JINJU Mr.Chang] |
.
This
time, Mr. Suzuki and Ms. Ohmichi visited numbers of eyewear shops and explained
about IOFT. As a result, more than 70 premium buyers are expected to come to
IOFT 2011. They said that most of people they met are interested in Japanese
eyewear. We hope all exhibitors will attend the show with perfect preparation.
[Visit to
China]
Then, our
staffs Mr. Kikuchi and Ms Ge went to China.
First,
they met Mr. Paul Wong, the president of SHANGHAI CORRIS OPTICS.
The company serves as agents of 13 Japanese, European/American brands in all. Although he visited IOFT every year, unfortunately he said he is not going to come to IOFT this year. However, the explanation of Mr. Kikuchi and Ms. Ge made his mind changed. Finally, he agreed to visit IOFT this year as well. It’s good news! We’re looking forward to seeing him at the show.
 |
| [from left:Ms.Ge, the President Mr,Wong, Mr.Kikuchi] |
The company serves as agents of 13 Japanese, European/American brands in all. Although he visited IOFT every year, unfortunately he said he is not going to come to IOFT this year. However, the explanation of Mr. Kikuchi and Ms. Ge made his mind changed. Finally, he agreed to visit IOFT this year as well. It’s good news! We’re looking forward to seeing him at the show.
Finally,
Mr. Kikuchi and Ms. Ge visited SHANGHAI
MATIAN EYEWARE/ SHANGHAI IDEE EYEWEAR and met the president Mr. Jack Ma.
This company
is the third biggest retail shop in Shanghai,
having over than 30 shops only in the city. Mr. Jack said that Japanese luxury
frames have high quality and famous among the rich in Shanghai. Besides, having the frames is
regarded as a status and that’s why the frames are sold well. Therefore, he
said he’d like to see mainly “IOFT Luxury Collection” and purchase gold frames
during the show.
 |
| [left side:Mr. Kikuchi, right side:the President Mr.Ma] |
Mr.
Kikuchi and Ms. Ge went around the eyewear shops in China over one week. This year, we’re
welcoming lots of premium buyers from Chinese major eyewear retail shops such
as HENAN BEST OPTICAL CHAIN, the owner of 200 shops in China and BAODAO OPTICAL, the owner of 99 shops
in China.
All of them are interested in Japanese and European/American eyewear with good
quality, as it’s especially in demand among the rich in China’s growing
economy.
[Visit to
Korea]
Finally,
we’ll report on a visit to Korea.
This time, the Show Director Mr. Sakamoto, Ms. Jong and Ms. Lee visited eyewear
shops in Seoul
and Busan.
In Seoul,
they met Mr. Park Dae Seong, the president of TOMATO D&C
which is a major eyewear shop owns 630 shops in Korea.
Mr. Park, who took office as
new president this year, is very interested in Japanese eyewear industry as
well as IOFT. He made a promise to us that this year, he will visit IOFT with buyers
who have the authority in order to consider more earnestly than ever and decide
to purchase products then and there.
 |
| [the President Mr.Park and the Show Director Mr.Sakamoto] |
TOMATO
D&C
In Busan,
the second largest city in Korea,
Mr. Sakamoto, Ms. Jong and Ms. Lee visited GALLERY OPTICAL CO., LTD which owns
28 shops mainly in Busan throughout Korea and met the president Mr. Kim Kikon.
Mr. Kim will participate in ribbon cutting
ceremony which will be held as an opening event of IOFT. He has already deal
with Japanese manufactures actively and visited Fukui
in Japan
once every few months. He will visit IOFT with 11 shop managers this year as he
comes to IOFT every year. He said he’s really looking forward to come to the
show.
 |
| [second from the right:Mr.Sakamoto, third from the right:the President Mr.Kim] |
GALLERY OPTICAL CO., LTD
After that, they met Mr. Kim Chan Young, the representative
director of NUNSARANG OPTIC.
The company has 22 shops in Busan and 47 shops in
total throughout Korea
including franchises. During the conversation, they found an astonishing fact
that Mr. Kim visited IOFT 10 years ago. Our staffs explained a lot about how
IOFT has been changed for 10 years and what the highlight of the show is. As a consequence,
he promptly replied that he will surely visit IOFT with his staffs this year.
He also said that he’d like to purchase good products and offer them to his customers.
It warmed our staffs’ heart to feel full of consideration for his customers.
 |
| [left side:Mr.Kim, right side:Mr.Sakamoto] |
Apart from those visits, our staffs held a
conference for visitors in Korea
and as a result, participants introduced them new visitors. Mr. Sakamoto and
Ms. Lee said that was a really beneficial visit for them.
[Editor’s Note]
IOFT attracts people’s attention as a place where
stylish products with high quality is gathered under one roof. Show Management
hopes that numbers of buyers from various Asian countries visit IOFT 2011 and
for the purpose, staffs visited lots of retail shops. As a result, over 400
buyers from Asian countries will come to IOFT this year.
To meet big expectation of those buyers, staffs will
put more and more sprit into preparation for the show. Show Management offers “Matching-Service”
to connect overseas buyers with exhibitors and many of those premium buyers told
us they would like to utilize this service and to have business meetings.
This year, we can see more active business meetings
during the show.
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