Forklift News - Fair trading amidst foul weather

Last week’s MHL 2007 show held for the first time in Auckland, New Zealand, in conjunction with the ISN Safety Show, attracted over 2,700 visitors despite extremely bad weather.

Organisers Hayley Media say they are ecstatic with the response to the show, which will be held again in 2009. According to sales manager Regan Matthews, "early indications are that our exhibitors were pleased with the quality of visitors attending, and I’m sure it would have been busier if we hadn’t had a freak storm."

Around 68 MHL exhibitors took part alongside approximately 100 safety exhibitors.
Sales manager for the safety show, John Clarke says although other safety shows have been held before in New Zealand, this year’s show was three to four times bigger and it was a good move to host the show alongside the MHL show as they were complementary to each other.

Not everyone felt the addition of the Safety Show alongside MHL was beneficial. Louise O’ Neill of RT Equipment, distributors of materials handling equipment and forklift attachments, says the safety show detracted from the materials handling and diluted the quality of visitors.

She tells Forkliftaction.com News that future participation by RT Equipment would depend on whether the MHL show was big enough to stand alone next time.

She believes that while her company did not get any sales leads at the show, it was a good way to get in touch with their existing dealers and create more awareness of the company.

Service manager Scott Ward of Power Forklifts, who exhibited at the show, says the show was excellent and the company generated good sales leads as a result. "Considering it was the first time it has been run, I feel it did pretty well and we’ll definitely be interested in participating again next time."

For Australian-based Burt Beaumont of Fibre King, the show was the company’s first major introduction to New Zealand of its laser guided vehicles, Elettric 80, and it produced extremely good sales leads.

Another exhibitor, George Lane, sales manager of Haden & Custance, manufacturer and supplier of materials handling equipment such as robotic palletizing and automatic forklifts, says he would have preferred a bigger show, but nonetheless established good contacts there.

One of the highlights of the show was an interactive warehouse in the form of a demonstration theatre, the first of its kind in New Zealand, featuring warehousing innovations at work.

Discuss Forkliftaction.com News stories in the Discussion Forums!