A look back at Plantworx 2017 – A full Report.

The 3rd biennial Plantworx Construction Machinery Show, hosted by the CEA (Construction Equipment Association), ended last week (8th June) following an extraordinary three-day action-packed event!

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. 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.”

A successful event – despite biblical weather conditions!
The show, which spanned a whopping 140,000 square metres 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, 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, they 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.”

“It’s been a great few days despite the weather,” said exhibitors Point of Rental Software. “Thanks, Plantworx Construction Exhibition!”
Leica Geosystems teamed up with UK Plant Operators for this year’s Plantworx event in a bid to help highlight technology in construction and how its changing the way we work.

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.”

Hervè Malibas managing director Containex said, “A great thank you again for this big show which was a true success for us.”

“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.” Andy Sabin, Thwaites

Datatag managing director, Kevin Howells said, “Plantworx went well for Datatag 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.”

Kevin added, “The event overall was a good networking opportunity and visitor footfall to the stand was good despite the challenging weather conditions on the first day.

Datatag were also proud to have won the Plantworx innovation award for MicroCESAR leading up to the show and this success really helped promote the newly launched scheme during the event.”

Business Done, Strong Sales Leads and Quality Visitors at Plantworx…
“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 during the 3-day show. Plantworx gave us the perfect opportunity to showcase live our newest, lightest, lowest, PowerLatch Tilt coupler and enable customers to see the tangible benefits of the added 180o versatility and functionality in action for themselves.”

A&Y Equipment, announced that they had become the UK’s Dieci construction importer at Plantworx, sold their first Dieci telehandler at the show on Tuesday. A local independent builder who had been rained off his site came onto the stand to take a look at the Dieci machines. A deal was agreed for a Dedalus 30.7, which is a fixed telehandler able to lift 3 tonnes up to 7 metres.

A&Y MD, Robert Brown said “Plantworx was the ideal time to launch this new range, it was a great opportunity for relevant people to see and talk about these new machines. From the show we have made sales of a Dedalus 30.7 as well as the Apollo 25.6R from the stand, this is on top of many further Dieci enquires, along with our existing Ammann, Yanmar and Cormidi equipment”

A representative from Molson Group, dealers for Hyundai, Kobelco and Sennebogen said, “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 and also without doubt help us promote the quality Sany Product in the UK. The demonstration area allows operators to try and see what Sany can delivery, the feedback we got was excellent.”

Exhibitor, IAPS Group said, “We had a great show. The weather conditions helped us to demonstrate the soft ground capabilities of the latest Hinowa Spa tracked booms.”

“Despite the weather the BOMAG stand was busy throughout the three- day-show. Our new location appeared a benefit compared to the first year at Bruntingthorpe, when we were at the bottom end of the site.” Reported BOMAG managing director, Alan Batty

Alan added, “The quality of visitors was high. Our customers found us and engaged with us positively and we also met a few ‘new faces’ which is why we continue to attend the major shows.”