Welcome ShowTex Shanghai!

In the past 3 years, ShowTex Hong Kong worked on various large-scale projects in China and connected with some well-known players in the local market. Therefore, opening up a branch in Shanghai was the next logical step to help saving shipping costs and shorten delivery times for the Chinese customers.

The overall strength of ShowTex is its ability to serve customers around the globe based on the understanding of their local culture and values, while maintaining a high-level customer service and offering profound technical knowledge.

We had an interesting chat with Jan Blomme, Managing Director of ShowTex Hong Kong & Shanghai, who told us a bit more about this huge undertaking.

Is ShowTex Shanghai already fully operational?

Did ShowTex work on any projects in China yet?

What are the most popular ShowTex products in China?

Did you face any challenges when opening the branch in Shanghai?

Is ShowTex Shanghai already fully operational?

After years of shipping back and forth, we finally have ShowTex stock on the ground in Mainland China, meaning our customers will now be served much better and faster. To suit our clients’ needs, a team of skilful professionals will now be able to assist them in Mandarin Chinese.

ShowTex Shanghai offers a large stock of best-selling items in a 500 sqm warehouse, a mezzanine level with an open confection area of 25m x 15m and 2-level offices. Our fully trained warehouse team is eager to process all future orders, which will be carried out by a professional installation crew on the spot. In other words, ShowTex Shanghai is definitely ready for business!

Did ShowTex work on any projects in China yet?

ShowTex focuses mainly on large scale events and permanent theater installations in China. The Han Show in Wuhan and The Dai Show in Xishuangbanna are two great examples of the latter. ShowTex also worked on some huge shows for very high-profile Chinese directors, such as Wang Chaoge and Yang Liping.

Apart from these theatre-type projects, Martell’s 300-anniversary was a special event last year. We provided two 100-meter-wide projection screens mounted in ShowTex Screen Profile. We were also involved in rather large exhibition stands for Ford and Lincoln at the Shanghai and Beijing Motor Shows.

Furthermore, Chinese customers are getting the taste of giant fabric building wraps, which is always a challenging but rewarding job. We worked all over China; from Beijing to Shanghai, Harbin, Xishuangbanna and Hainan.

What are the most popular ShowTex products in China?

ShowTex’ unique, high-quality fabrics and reliable motion technology open many opportunities for ShowTex in China. Extra-wide projection fabrics are relatively new to the Chinese market and our customers love the holographic projections on GobelinTulle and Voile. With the launch of the brand-new PepperScrim, it seems ShowTex introduced something unseen in the market!

Because we can join our StretchTulle with invisible seams, it remains a bestseller here. We recently produced a piece of 25m H x 125m W without any visible joints for a building wrap!

The ShowTex Giant Mirror is a fast-moving product as well, because it is an irreplaceable material for making perfect mirror effects at large-scale events.

We also offer ShowTex motion systems for rental in China; products such as the HiSpeed RollUp, Kabuki drop and Rope/ChainTrack systems are available for rental at quite reasonable prices.

Traditionally, stage sets in China are built using wood, steel, LED and a lot of manpower. ShowTex brings solutions with fabrics, aluminium frames and projections that are a lot less labour intensive. It takes a while for our customers to get their heads around it, but once they see the possibilities of textile, they fall in love with it.

Did you face any challenges when opening the branch in Shanghai?

Opening up a new branch is always a challenge, as you are faced with plenty of administrative work, long procedures and the local language. Luckily we can rely on some amazing staff in Hong Kong and Shanghai who are able to assist non-English speaking customers and employees at all time.

The Chinese translation of the full ShowTex product guide and website also turned out to be a big help, both for our customers and for our own employees. People in the theatre and event industry need relevant knowledge, experience and thorough understanding of large-scale projects, only this way they can stand stronger.