The 3rd biennial
The show opened to torrential rain but it did not ‘stop play’ and hardy visitors braved the elements and worked their way around the show taking shelter on the undercover trade stands. On day-two there was glorious sunshine, however due to a large amount of footfall, mud was abundant, but this did not dampen the spirits of visitors who flocked through the gates to see the plethora of brand new equipment on display at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire, central England. The Plantworx team has also reported more than12,300 visitors came through the gates over the three days.
Rob Oliver, chief executive of the CEA said, “We had two things dumped on us at the show, three inches of rain on day one – and a General Election on day three! However, the spirit at the show shone through – and it achieved our goal of providing a successful business event for our industry. Early indications are that a lot of exhibitors are reporting significant new contacts. Great, too, that our partnership with Primary Engineer really delivered with the showcase for school age engineers in The Hub area. We will continue to develop the show, not forgetting that we are there to reflect the needs of our sector first and foremost.”
The show, which spanned a whopping 140,000m² and was home to 395 exhibitors, for three-days, was deemed a success. Following the show social media platforms were ‘buzzing’ with mostly positive comments from both exhibitors and visitors alike.
Visitor Sean Gratton, of S Gratton Plant Hire, said via twitter: “I Thought it was a great show – great access and a well thought out show.”
Graham Sandercock, MD at Mecalac dealers, Specialist Plant South West, was an exhibitor at the show. He said via Facebook: “It was wet and muddy as hell, but it didn't dampen the spirits! There were some cracking guys I spoke to with great enthusiasm for machinery. Cheers!”
Graham added, “Mecalac had a great stand and demo area and our operator, Michael Gruffaz, won best demonstrator of the show with what he did with the 6MCR. There was a huge amount of interest in the MCR and MWR machines, with many people discovering them for the first time.”
Visitor Jason Snaith reported on Facebook: “Fantastic atmosphere on the Finning/ Sitech stand with the lads from the Facebook group, Digger Man Blog.”
First time exhibitors, Hugh Crane, had a great inaugural show. The firm said: “We exhibited for the first time this year. Great event apart from the rain on Tuesday!”
Visitor Trevor Little said on Twitter: “Having been to all three Plantworx – this show was the best so far.”
UK Plant Operators founder, Dale Hawkins, said, “Despite the brief weather interruptions we found the visitors to this year’s event very engaging, with over 500 entries into our simulator competition. With the main focus being iCON machine control guidance and the way it can enhance the operator to become more efficient in their works, the skill level displayed during the competition was outstanding.
We are very much looking forward to the next event. Thank you and your teams support during the event, a job well done you should all be proud.”
Andy Sabin, of Thwaites, said: “Thank you from all at Thwaites for the effort put in by the Plantworx team over the last two weeks, we had a fantastic show and a busy stand over the whole three days.”
Datatag managing director, Kevin Howells said Plantworx had gone well for the company. “We were pleased to be able to mark the ten-year anniversary of CESAR during the show. The success of the CESAR scheme was prominent throughout as so many manufactures were displaying their CESAR marked machines.”
“Despite the challenging weather conditions Plantworx 2017 turned out to be extremely encouraging for Miller, with enquiries at an exceptionally high level compared to previous shows,” said, Brendan Quill, sales and marketing director at Miller. “We have attributed the significant increase in sales leads due to the introduction of our new PowerLatch Tilt coupler which gained a huge amount of interest over the three days.”
A representative from Molson Group, dealers for Hyundai, Kobelco and Sennebogen was another pleased with how the three-day event went. “We did a few deals on the stand – it’s the first time an umbrella has closed a deal for me.”
Andrew Taylor, general manager for Sany dealer, TDL Equipment said, “We had a very busy three-days, the first two were excellent and generated many enquires, and whilst the last day was slower it also proved excellent. The stand location was better than in 2015 and the show overall brings us many new customers.”
