Environment and Employment: two key themes at Texcare France

With preparations in full swing for the first Texcare France trade fair, to be held from 25 to 27 November 2023 at Porte de Versailles in Paris, the organisers are once again demonstrating their commitment to supporting the industry by placing two major topical issues at the heart of the event:

• Employment and training

• Environment

Employment and training
Since the end of the various lockdowns and despite the geopolitical impact by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French economy has seen an exceptionally dynamic labour market in 2021 and 2022. However, this dynamism has been hampered by major recruitment difficulties. Having risen steadily since 2015, recruitment challenges reached an all-time high in 2022 and remain high today. The textile care sector is no exception, across all segments.

The challenges in this area are manifold. Faced with a labour shortage and shunned for a variety of reasons, the textile care sector is showing signs of a shortage of both managerial and non-managerial positions.

The consequences of these recruitment difficulties are having an impact on the performance of companies in the sector and on the employees working there: work overload (79%), loss or shortfall of turnover (38%), deterioration in work or quality of service (36%), delays in order deliveries (31%)*, etc.

Faced with a shortage of talent and motivated candidates, what are the possibilities for companies? To what extent can recruitment processes evolve? What is the company's share of responsibility in its recruitment difficulties? Do we need to change the way we look at and deal with older employees, especially in the context of pension reform? Should remuneration policies be adapted to the inflationary context? Should we rebuild a collective work dynamic? Should we respond to employees' new professional aspirations (such as a better work-life balance, better working conditions, etc.) to ensure their activity and performance, but also to retain them? Why is employee training essential to adapting to the market and new customer needs?

These are just some of the many questions and areas of reflection and action that will be addressed in the various round tables at Texcare France.

The environment
The ecological transition is on everyone's lips. Increasingly involved in ecological issues, the industry, with all its stakeholders, from suppliers to end-users, is constantly facing new challenges in this area, between regulatory constraints, CSR initiatives and common sense, and also driven by increasingly demanding users and consumers.

Professionals in the sector have been working for several years, and are still working, to optimise the environmental care of clothing and textile articles. While there is no such thing as zero impact, improving processes (in manufacturing or maintenance) that use only the resources that are strictly necessary and sufficient, while seeking the right quality and favouring solutions that have the least impact on the environment, is the obvious way to make businesses even more virtuous. A key theme with many facets to be discovered at the round tables.
* Source : Banque de France

Three questions to Boris Mörch, Show Director

Why is the show announced as the show for the French-speaking world?
France is a booming market for Texcare's target group. It is the world's leading tourist destination, with a clear need for linen treatment, particularly in the hotel and catering industry. It is also a country with a growing senior population, which also creates an appropriate need for linen treatment, not forgetting the healthcare market.

It's also worth noting that services are playing an increasingly important role, which is logical in a society in the midst of technological and digital change. A French event to bring together supply and demand is essential because not all of the buyers can travel to the Texcare International show, which is held every 4 years in Germany. So, there was a need to organise this platform to complement what Frankfurt had to offer, and an interest in contributing our know-how as trade show organisers to develop an event dedicated to the French and French-speaking market. France is a gateway to the Mediterranean basin and the French-speaking border countries of Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

How many international companies are there?
So far, almost half of the companies registered are from abroad, which confirms the attractiveness of the French market to offer their products and services.

What strategic changes have you made for this first edition of Texcare France?
Following the takeover of the JET Expo show in 2019, both we and the event's steering committee, which regularly brings together a panel of exhibitors and federations, realised that the show had gradually become focused on the dry-cleaning market, a market that was itself undergoing radical change and in the process of declining. It was becoming imperative to move away from this exclusive focus on this market segment.

We therefore decided to reorientate the event around five major families, including dry cleaners and laundries, but also to reintegrate industrial, semi-industrial and small-scale laundries working for the health sector and HORECA in particular.

If you would like more information, to arrange a meeting with a Texcare France spokesperson, or to receive all the latest news from the show, please don't hesitate to contact us.

• Access reserved for professionals.

• Free online registration starts at the end of June at https://texcare-france.fr.messefrankfurt.com/paris/en.html