Ypres, Belgium — Z-Wovens Europe, a subsidiary of Zhongwang Holding Group of Hangzhou China has established itself in Europe under the direction of Guy Parmentier, a well-known export specialist and consultant based in Europe. Parmentier under his Eutex Agency, was an important advisor to many other mills over the years in Europe and Turkey. He says this is his first opportunity to work with a serious China based mill. “My son Justin is going to handle more and more the remaining agencies at Eutex as I am really committed to make this great Z-Wovens venture a real success.” “Z-Wovens Europe will be handled through our company in Spain – with an office in Altea, Spain. We also will utilize the Eutex office in Ieper Belgium,” Parmentier says. “Later on, we have the idea to open a Z-Wovens office and showroom.” Zhongwang is one of the larger upholstery mills in China with sales in excess of $25 million under the ownership and leadership of principal Yang Lin Shan. In 2006, Yang adopted the finishing and weaving techniques of Quaker Fabrics in a Hangzhou finishing plant when the two companies were working together in a joint venture. Zhongwang prospered and started a US division in 2010 and established Z-Wovens Europe this past March. While Quaker ultimately went bankrupt, Zhongwang has thrived and is an important resource today for many American upholstery manufacturers and counterpart companies based in China. ZW as a mill specializes in woven residential upholstery fabrics mainly with polyester and acrylic yarns. “Based on the successful concept of Z-Wovens-USA, the European version of Z-Wovens will initially target the major Europe based importers, distributors as well as some large manufacturers offering woven collections with European style handwriting,” says Parmentier. Marc Geysen, a well-known European designer and trend watcher and his team, have joined the ZW European project and will do the designing of the initial collections scheduled for their first time release second quarter of 2017. These new collections will be presented during MoOD 2017 in September at the Tour & Taxi Centre in Brussels, Belgium. Both Mrs. Jennifer Yang (wife of Yang Lin Shan) and daughter Rena, Zhongwang’s Marketing Director, recently joined Parmentier on a European tour to discuss the possibilities of the new venture, meeting with the designer Marc Geysen and finalizing the first collections and fine tuning the European strategy with Parmentier. Rena is a finance graduate (2010) of The Lancaster University in the U.K. She has been particularly focused on the role of the American market to Zhongwang and Z-Wovens collections. “That U.S. based operation started in 2010 in High Point, North Carolina, says Parmentier, and “has “since then been writing a real successful story.” Of course, he hopes to be as successful in the new Z-Wovens- Europe venture. Zhongwang Holding is exporting 90 percent of its Hangzhou mill production to the USA according to Rena Yang. The new division in Europe is expected to establish substantial business with the European based customers under Parmentier’s direction, through the service of his European sales team.