China International Import Expo is seen as a big opportunity by Italian shoemaker Crispi, as it looks to expand its reach into the Chinese market and consolidate its international position.

The CIIE is such a big platform that Crispi can use it to establish more communication with all parties and explore more potential and opportunities in the future, said Luca Sarnataro, Crispi's global sales director via an online interview during the fourth CIIE in Shanghai on Friday. 

Liu Lili, who is in charge of the company's exhibition booth at the event said on Saturday that she is impressed by the expo's high standards, professional organization and big name exhibitors.

This is the first time the Italian brand has taken part in the event.

Sarnataro feels that the expo can serve as a platform for promoting healthy outdoor lifestyles to new groups of people, while also helping the company to gain a better understanding of the development of local brands.

He noted that Crispi has been in China for 16 years and the brand has built up deep relationships with local businesses and consumers. But Sarnataro feels the company will be able to integrate further into the Chinese market by participating in the CIIE.

"To participate in this CIIE, we want to focus more on the future, the future of the Chinese market, to become a partner of the Chinese market, and continue to achieve success in the Chinese market."

We're happy to see that the Chinese market is set to expand, and we also know that over the next few years, the focus of market development and expansion will be fueled by the strategy of building a strong country in sports. I believe this presents us with a great opportunity, he said.

"We have been deeply engaged in the field of outdoor sports, and our DNA is deeply rooted in outdoor sports and outdoor shoes, so it can be said that we hope and have the ability to become a contributor to the development of the entire sports market in China," Sarnataro said.

According to Crispi, the company designed special "shoe trees" to better fit Chinese people's feet. And from the moment of China's bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the company's designers have been planning to design a collection of Chinese limited edition shoes for the Winter Olympics. During the fourth CIIE, the brand not only brought its classic Italian-style shoes, but also debuted two special colors -- panda white and lantern red, to mark the 2022 Winter Games.

"We want to better engage with consumers and connect with the Chinese market through our participation in the Games and the introduction of featured products, and the featured products also help demonstrate our support for the Beijing Winter Olympics," Sarnataro said.

As for Crispi, it has completed its sales plan for 2021 in advance by the end of October 2021 and the company is confident it will see its sales increase by around 30 percent this year.

According to Sarnataro, Crispi plans to increase investment by at least 10 percent in 2022.

"We are now focusing on the next 12 months, from now until the next CIIE. During this period, we hope to cooperate with more partners so that everyone can experience the Italian style of our brand and the high quality of Italian products."

Through our growth in China, we hope to consolidate our market position and share in more development opportunities going forward, he said.

China's reform and opening-up has brought great opportunities for international cooperation, Sarnataro noted.

By Sun Chi