PDM continues to attract genuine buyers ready to invest

Machines and materials were sold, new projects discussed and hundreds of quality sales leads generated at the 10th anniversary Plastics Design & Moulding (PDM) Exhibition in Telford last week. The event returns to the Telford International Centre on 14 and 15 June 2016 with over 50% of stand space already booked.

Jaguar Land Rover, BT, Dyson, Ford, Honda, Panasonic, Proctor & Gamble and Bentley were among the many companies who sent delegates to PDM and the co-located Plastics Recycling Expo and Plastics Packaging Show. Not surprisingly exhibitors reported meeting high quality visitors with genuine sales enquiries.

“We have met new customers and the people coming onto the stand are genuine enquiries, not just visitors coming to chew the fat," reported Matthew Holyoake, southern sales engineer for Arburg which demonstrated a low energy, servo driven hydraulic machine on its stand.

“Our exhibit of a new Borche BS80t machine created a great deal of interest and was very well received. We secured two machine orders, one from a new customer and one from an existing customer together with a good number of positive leads,” said Terry O’Reilly, sales director, Borche UK.

Philip Watkins, managing director, Gabriel Chemie (one of the masterbatch and additive suppliers exhibiting) agreed. “Even after 10 years, PDM never fails to impress as a forum for making new contacts and discussing new projects,” he said.

Carl Jones, sales for Vargus Tooling exhibiting for the first time said they had had an excellent show and expected to come away with 30-40 leads who he described as, “decision makers – engineers, managing directors – the manufacturers who use our tools."

Firmly established in the industry calendar as the key annual event for the plastics design and moulding community, PDM continues to deliver a quality audience for its diversifying exhibitor base which now includes recycling specialists and packaging producers.

Recycled polymer producer, Axion Polymers was particularly pleased, having taken a large order at the show and securing over 20 strong leads from potential customers. Director Keith Freegard said the event “attracts a tightly-focused group of people from across the plastics industry, so we found that most visitors to our stand were genuinely interested in the products we had on offer.”

Among the 160 companies exhibiting were several overseas businesses keen to showcase their capabilities to the UK market, now regarded as the growth area in Europe. The sector’s strength was reinforced in the PDM conference by keynote speaker Terry Scuoler, CEO, EEF. He told his audience it was “the bedrock of British industry… what you do matters – you employ, you invest, you create technology and wealth. You are the bedrock of our economy.”

PDM returns to the Telford International Centre on 14 and 15 June 2016.