Business News
Exhibitors reveal impressive sales figures from The Print Show 2016
Wednesday 07. December 2016 - Event branded a selling show by exhibiting companies
Exhibitors at this years edition of The Print Show have said that the event not only helped raise awareness of their products and solutions, but also generated an impressive amount of leads and sales.
While many visitors were in attendance to catch a glimpse of some of the latest technology and find out how it could help their business, a significant number went a step further by investing in new kit. This follows on from last years show, where exhibitors also reported a strong level of sales.
Chris Davies, event director of The Print Show, and new sister event SignLink Live, said: “As we have said from day one, if we could establish a platform that is both respected and trusted by manufacturers and suppliers, then the rest of the industry will follow. We have done just that and, as a result, our exhibitors can generate interest in their products.
“The fact that so many of our exhibitors sold at the show this year is fantastic for us as organisers, as well as those companies that were showing off kit. They are safe in the knowledge that if they commit to us and exhibit at The Print Show, then they are going to get results.”
One of the companies that reported a significant amount of sales at the show was Duplo, which, just days after the event, confirmed sales of more than £400,000. In addition, Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS) was able to sell finishing kit to a number of different companies.
Another firm to have reported sales as a result of its appearance at The Print Show is SSE Worldwide, a supplier of both new and used small- and large-format print machines. Scott Armitage, managing director of SSE Worldwide Digital Printing Equipment, was full of praise for the event, saying it helped to attract decision-makers, which in turn led to sales and leads.
“The Print Show was a great showcase for the industry,” Armitage said. “The event attracted decision-makers who were looking for new ways of printing and finishing. We have had an excellent number of quality leads, which are now in the sales pipeline process.
“As a direct result of exhibiting at the show with Axzyra, we received an order for an Apache 6045 UV LED printer from a southern gift company. The installation will take place in November.”
Meanwhile, such was the success of this years event for Grafenia that it has now signed up to bring its Nettl, Marqetspace, and printing.com brands back to The Print Show next year. Peter Gunning, chief executive at Grafenia, was full of praise for the event, explaining how it helped to raise awareness of the firms brands.
Gunning said: “It was the first time we exhibited our Nettl formula at a trade show and weve already signed up a couple of new partners, with more discussions on the go.
“Marqetspace, our trade channel was showing those booths and other fabric displays at trade prices for resellers. We signed up lots of new customers and handed out hundreds of swag boxes.
“Finally, we exhibited printing.com for the first time since launching our new simple subscription model. Its only £299 a month and the value spoke for itself – we signed up new locations on each of the days.
“We will be bringing all three of our brands to the show in 2017. We think its important that we see as many of our customers as often as possible. Theres nothing like face-to-face to build trust and remind them that were all really nice people.”
Elsewhere, Friedheim International, operating from one of the larger stands at the show, was able to take orders for various products in its range of finishing solutions. Such technology included an MBO B30/644 Efficiency buckle folding machine with A76 mobile stream delivery and an Audion EL-Matic film wrapper along with a TM18 shrink tunnel.
Rob Hart, director of Ace Print Finishers, which purchased an MBO B30 folder, said: “We regularly invest in new equipment to update our capabilities and improve the service to our customers. I believe that MBO folders are the best machines on the market for trade finishers, and for us the B30 is the perfect model.”
Stuart Bamford, national sales manager for post-press products at Friedheim, added: “The Print Show provided a good opportunity to meet new and existing customers, and for that reason the event justified our participation. Our task now is to follow up and maximise all of the good sales that were generated.”
Also celebrating a successful show is Tech-ni-Fold, which not only achieved more than 100 leads at the event, but has since been able to transfer some into sales.
Graham Harris, managing director, explains: “The Print Show exceeded our expectations with over 100 strong leads achieved, including some overseas visitors who expressed interest in becoming a distributor. Of course, every show we exhibit at is measured in terms of sales and getting a return on our investment ASAP, which can sometimes take quite a while.
“I am happy to say that there was no such delay this time; we immediately recouped our show costs through selling six CreaseStream mini machines, and four Tech-ni-Fold creasing and micro-perforating tools, with more in the pipeline.
“The Print Show was one of the very best shows we exhibited at, was very well organised and delivered on its promises.”
Although sales may be the key goal for exhibitors, another reason that many of our exhibitors this year chose to attend was to raise awareness of kit to both new and existing customers.
Riso is another company to have reported success regarding this latter target, with Debbie Callaghan, marketing manager at the companys UK arm, commenting: “Its true that there were a large number of decision-makers visiting our stand, and that the majority were from the commercial printing sector. And there were also visitors from a wide range of sectors, such as not for profit, education and local authorities.
“Visitors said that they were drawn to our stand because of the innovative and unique technology on display and the fact our knowledgeable team were able to answer questions about print. In particular, the new GD caught the imagination, particularly with the additional fifth ink and its compatibility with Fiery RIP.
“We have got excellent feedback and we are now looking forward to building relationships with people who made enquiries.”
Vivid Laminating Technologies, exhibiting for the second time, was also highly complementary about the event, revealing that it was able to generate plenty of interest in new technology. The Matrix Duplex, together with the new 370 Auto-Feeder, were launched at the show, with the firm reporting a “great reaction” from visitors.
Speaking in a statement, Vivid said: “It was great to support our dealers and meet with new customers. We were extremely busy throughout the show with many enquiries made.
“We also launched the Easycoat, a gluing system that adds a layer of adhesive to media. Layers can then be added one-by-one to create a thick substrate.”
Intec Printing Solutions was also quick to pay tribute to The Print Show, with Ian Melville, managing director at the company, explaining that the event helped to generate a healthy amount of leads.
Melville said: “The event allowed us to build on our success from last years show. We were excited to use the show as a platform to launch new print and finishing equipment that included the ColorFlare and ColorCut, which work in conjunction with our colour digital printers.
“We have ambitions to improve our market share within the UK market and the show enabled us to do this, with orders taken on the stand and installations taking place soon after.
“Overall we are pleased with how the show went, coming away with some very exciting leads making us very busy following up all the leads that we generated.”
Elsewhere, t-shirt printing and embroidery company Fanela said it was able to attract almost 200 visitors to its stand over the three days, picking up a solid number of leads in the process.
Artie Pallari of Fanela said: “In those that visited, Im sure there will be general interest, but looking at our list, we feel there is at least five or ten very strong leads that could become long-term clients.”