Exhibitors at Manutention 2006 say the handling equipment tradeshow was a success but many maintain it was a "mostly French show".
For Hyundai Heavy Industries Europe, the tradeshow was significant as the company announced a name change for its forklifts.
"The previous type designations - HBF, HDF or HLF for the electric, diesel or gas forklifts - are being replaced with the general term Folex, which stands for 'Forklift Excellent'," Hyundai said in a statement.
Hyundai marketing engineer Jan Coemans said Manutention remained a French exhibition.
"Of course there is some international interest but you can't compare it with what CeMAT means to the international forklift world. Probably the international interest for Manutention would be a lot higher if it didn't follow CeMAT so fast.
"But if you want to be seen in the French logistics market, Manutention, without a doubt, is the place to be," Coemans said.
Hyundai unveiled its Folex 25BH-7 forklift with high-voltage battery drive at the show.
For Doosan Infracore, European sales & marketing manager Daniel Vanhemelrijck, said the show was an important event for the company to boost brand recognition of Doosan, following Doosan group's purchase of a controlling stake in Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery in 2005 (
Forkliftaction.com News #210).
"We wanted to show our company's name change in one of the biggest markets in Europe. Visitor response was surprisingly good, despite our new name. From next year we will apply the Doosan name as a single brand on all our trucks," Vanhemelrijck said.
He said the absence of Doosan Infracore's competitors, Jungheinrich, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Komatsu and TCM, initially made him think the show was less important than previous shows.
"But, after checking the responses, we gathered more contacts than in 2003 - customers and potential dealer candidates in France and other countries.
"In general Manutention was a big international event in the past but has now turned more into a French event with less visitors from outside the hexagon," Vanhemelrijck said.
His general impression was the show had mostly visitors from French-speaking countries, naming Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria as examples.
Karine Heden-Dejon, from BT France, said her company made 50 per cent more contacts than at the 2003 show.
"Most companies had real projects to discuss. The fact that we had a demonstration area of about 100 square metres with demos every hour attracted many people."
BT France's Daniel Mitrevitch, who was in charge of the exhibition, said it was good to see French visitors as his company was based in France.
"It's true I didn't see a lot of people from foreign countries but the feeling about visitor participation was the same as a few years ago," he said.
BT France exhibited 30 forklift models at Manutention. The three-wheel counterbalanced truck, C3E, launched at CeMAT 2005 in Hannover, was introduced in France for the first time.
Isabelle Le Ruyet, from Atlet France, said several projects stemming from the show had already started.
"We had only been in the exhibition since 1999, where we had a 450 square metre stand. I would say it was good but still I expected more contacts to qualify it as a big success," she said. Atlet France exhibited seven forklifts on its 81 square metre stand this year.
Manutentions Equipements & Systèmes, the handling equipment show, and Semaine Internationale du Transport et de la Logistique (SITL), the transport and logistics show, were held together at the Paris-Nord Villepinte from March 7 to March 10.
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Forkliftaction.com News will publish an exclusive interview with Hyundai Heavy Industries Europe marketing manager Michel de Weert next week.