Elektek123

Because a company doesn't exhibit at ProMat doesn't mean too much. It might mean that they found a better return on their dollars rather than spend it at Promat. Their market share is admirable - when you are at the top in your classit is hard to stay there as someone is always shooting at you for a variety of reasons - including just jealousy.

In the late 70's early 80's as I recall, a major company did a study on the return on investment for the $ spend to exhibit at the MHI show (now call ProMat), their key findings were:
1. Over 80% of the visitors were from within a 300 mile radius of Chicago.
2. Over 80% of the visitors to their booth were from competitors.
3. They could attribute about 4 unit sales (new customers) directly to their being at Pro Mat.
4. Of the 20% of the visitors over 300 miles from Chicago a significant number of them came equipped with Nikkon or Cannon cameras, wore glasses, about 5'4" tall and liked to talk about the rising sun.
5. Plus, at that time it seemed that Pro Mat organizers were putting more emphasis on "systems" companies, racks, converors, AS/RS type equipment - let's face it, forklifts do not have a lot of curb appeal. They ain't a dramatically changing technology - functions are about the same as in 1967 (transistor and SCR controllers were being introduced then), significant changes have been made in the "human factor" areas, compliance to OSHA and other safety standards has caused changes and every one seems to copy the other guy, except for SAS.
They then concluded the could spend less money and reach more customers all over the US, Canada, etc. via a travelling road show that had customer interaction. They never returned to ProMat.

Yes, their products are now made in North Carolina - Greenville. And no I don't or ever had worked for Crown in my 41 years spent in the forklift industry.