Exhibitors View NPE2009 as Profitable, "Feel Good" Story for the Industry

July 1, 2009

A general feeling of satisfaction, contentment and perhaps a little relief came over the NPE2009 show floor by the time the show closed at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Exhibitors were pleased with the show attendance and repeatedly cited the high quality of the buyers and decision-makers at the show despite lower volume. In a nutshell, attendees were here on a mission: to seriously research and buy products and services.

First-time exhibitor Canon Precision Mold Making-affiliated with the Canon of cameras and printers-came to NPE2009 to mark the company's entry into the world market with a new plant in Virginia. "It's been great," says senior director of business development Brian Strangways. "The contacts we've made have been better than expected."

Similarly enthusiastic is Americhem, whose business director Chris Piazza notes, "We've seen a steady flow of people with a lot of inquiries. We came to the show with many innovative products, and that has drawn visitors to our booth. They come asking, ‘What new things do you have that can help us to differentiate ourselves.'"

Bioplastics are also a big draw, according to Dan Gilliland, business development director for Mirel: "We've had very high traffic and extremely high quality."

Matt McCabe, vice president of sales for Wittman-Battenfeld, says, "We have been extremely satisfied. Booth traffic has been much better than expected. We're seeing leads comparable to those in 2006."

One of the industry's best-known resin product lines, back at NPE after being absent in 2006, also has attracted many visitors, according to Tim O'Brien, Sabic Innovative Plastics'vice president for the Americas, Europe, and the Mideast and Africa. "We came to NPE because we view this event as being very important for showing our commitment to the industry and our customers."

"We've had a higher amount of leads this year than in 2006," said Liam Burns, general manger of Negri Bossi USA, Inc. "And they are very high quality leads. We are very happy."

"It‘s always nice to sell something right off the floor, " said Jim Healy, vice president of sales and marketing at Sepro America, speaking of the sprue picker the company sold on Tuesday. Sepro also sold a robot (#4050) on a pre-show NPE special promotion."The last two days have been really busy with heavy traffic in spurts. We are really feeling good about it."

At Terwin Instruments Ltd., Grant Winter, managing director, said, "We have had excellent business from serious buyers - and not just from the U.S. but globally." Based in Nottinghamshire, England, Terwin is a manufacturer of extrusion melt pressure and temperature transducers, transmitters, indicators, controllers and signal conditioners.

"By day three of NPE2009 we had 163 leads, which is double what we did in an entire week of NPE 2006," said Richard Baillie, vice president of marketing for Shamrock Technologies, Inc., a processor of recycled PTFE.

"We have been jammed since opening on Monday and we could not have scripted a better first three days of the show," said Steve Petrakis, president of Frigel North America. "Attendees have a high level of interest and are decision makers. The industry should get a boost from this week."

"It was extremely important for Milacronto be present at this year's NPE," said Glenn Anderson, vice president and general manager for the company's North American Injection & Global Extrusion Businesses. "Given our current situation, our presence and our ability to tell our story and the path going forward was paramount. Given the volume of traffic through our booth, it is clear that our customer's are standing with us as we navigate through the process. As a result, the show has been everything we could have hoped for and more... We are proud to be able to play a vital role in the ultimate success of our industry going forward."

First-time NPE exhibitor Ship & Shore Environmental, Inc., showcased the launch of a new company, Green Energy Industrial Solutions, in the energy quadrant of the Emerging Technologies Pavilion. The new company is President Anoosheh Mostafaei's answer to client demands for energy efficiency, renewable energy sourcesas well as GHG emission reduction. "We've had more people ask us to survey their factories for ways to reduce energy consumption," she said. "They are revisiting how to increase the bottom line by reducing operating expenses."

Jeff Montanye, R&D director of Dow Chemicalreported that due to customer volume he will be staying at NPE through Friday, after originally planning to depart Thursday.

Frank Opett, sales manager and trade show coordinator for Optical Gaging Products, raved about the general NPE experience, and the service of Freeman, the show's general contractor, in particular. "SPI did a great job by selecting Freeman as the show contractor. Working with Freeman has been a breath of fresh air -- from the phone support to the onsite exhibitor services. I do 18-20 shows a year and Freeman is above every other show manager I have worked with.

Founded in 1937, SPI is the plastics industry trade association representing the third largest manufacturing industry in the United States. SPI's member companies represent the entire plastics industry supply chain, including processors, machinery and equipment manufacturers and raw materials suppliers. The U.S. plastics industry employs 1.1 million workers and provides nearly $379 billion in annual shipments.