The Manufacturer asked a selection of companies who exhibited at MACH 2012 how they found the show this year. Both positives and constructive criticism were encouraged! On balance MACH 2012 seemed to be a success for many and it points to higher confidence for end-users of manufacturing technologies.
As an exhibition that attracted more than 20,000 visitors, MACH is an important event for the engineering manufacturing sector. TM provides a selection of what major exhibitors had to say about the show.
Tony Saunders, UK sales director at Yamazaki Mazak:
“We were busy from Monday through the week. We booked over £3 million in machine orders at MACH that were not forecast for the show, and there was a high proportion of new as well as existing customers, which was encouraging.
“Orders were spread across the customer base, from small subcontract jobshops through to OEMs, and across all the big sub-sectors – aerospace, automotive, power generation etc. The machines sold covered a range, including the popular Integrex Variaxis, our Orbitec, and UK-manufactured machining centres. I see this as a sign of tentative growth in manufacturing, as more than 50 per cent of show sales were to the subcontract sector.
The MTA said that the show is up 20 per cent on visitors this year. I’d have to see the figures, but this was reflected in our level of business.”
Alan Pickering, managing director of Unison:
“For us, MACH is about increasing our brand awareness and engaging with people that don’t know Unison’s products, culture and personality.
“The LASER springback correction and bar code tooling really helped engage with people that just thought we were offering a standard tube benders and not the innovative company we are.”
Mr Pickering also expressed his desire to get Subcon back on board alongside MACH, and to extend the exhibition to last over five days. He also pointed out that all the marketing seemed to have been done by MTA.
“There was poor traffic on Monday and Friday,” he added as a final point.
Nick Frampton, managing director at Mills CNC:
“By the close of play on the final day we had sold 14 machines, making over £1.8m in sales, up 50% on the sales performance we achieved during the last MACH show.”
He said that a lot of orders and enquiries had come from new customers: “I am confident [the record number of sales enquiries we had] will be converted into actual orders in the next four to eight weeks.”
Nick Gunning, sales director at Dugard:
“[There were] much more senior people visiting our stand during MACH 2012. The only negative was that hall four had a lot of empty space at the back that wasn’t well screened off.”
Adrian Haller, managing director at Bruderer UK:
“We spent £50,000 on the stand, illustrating our commitment to growth in UK manufacturing. We weren’t disappointed with the return either, with lots of new connections made and existing customers taking time to come and look at the high speed BSTA 280-75B2 press – the first time it has ever been displayed in this country.”
“There was also a lot of interest in our servo tooling components, an area of the business that has the potential to be huge for us this year.”
Gerry Dunne, chairman of the Midlands Assembly Network (MAN) and managing director of Westley Engineering:
“We’ve seen nearly 60 enquiries received during the week, making this one of the best MACH’s ever for the MAN.”
“Interestingly, a number of the people we’ve spoken to were keen to talk about repatriating work back to the UK due to quality issues and the fact it is no longer cheaper doing business in the sub-continent.”
Chairman of the Association of Welding Distribution, Adrian Hawkins:
“This is the first time we have used the concept of the Welding World Village at MACH and speaking to exhibitors and visitors alike, they all commended us on the high profile we were able to give to welding in the UK’s leading manufacturing show.”
“The very positive responses we have received from the Welding World Village exhibitors has been tremendous, with a number reporting securing orders for equipment on their stands.”
Jason Parkinson, sales manager (UK & Ireland) at Trafimet Schweisstechnik GmbH:
“The show was well worth the time and effort. We received good quality enquires from both end users and distributors.”
Carl Windram, managing director at Central Grinding Services:
“We had a great show with a huge amount of enquiries, so much so that we are looking to buy another machine so we can fulfil potential orders. MACH has helped us to step up our operations and move our business onto the next level.”
Bill Neal, managing director at Roemheld (UK) Ltd:
“We received a large number of enquiries at the show and over 35% of these leads were new companies to us.”
“A number of orders for vices were actually placed during the exhibition, which was an excellent result.”
Roemheld exhibited new launches in its core workholding product ranges as well as its new range of E-Tec products, alongside its flexible fixturing system (Pogo stick), Jergens vice systems and Modulog assembly and mounting products.
Commenting on MACH 2012, a spokesperson for an anonymous company who did not exhibit said:
“We feel that in the current trading environment it’s difficult to justify our presence at MACH; the costs over five days of exhibiting at MACH are nothing short of enormous.”
“For us there is a conflict between the organisers being both the trade entity for manufacturing in the UK and the MACH show organisation. A clear separation of the two is long overdue [in our opinion].”
“Waiting for a bi-annual show that lasts for five days just could not possibly satisfy the requirements of fast moving businesses in a fluid market environment,” a company spokesperson told TM.
