SED 2009 got off to a sunny start yesterday…but exhibitors were thin on the ground
Back in February, we here at Demolition News predicted that SED 2009, traditionally the UK’s premier construction equipment show, might be below par. Well, under blue skies, the show kicked off at the Rockingham Motor Speedway yesterday but I fear our predictions were not too wide of the mark.
From a demolition man’s perspective, the show was a shadow of its former self. In recent years, the show’s Demolition & Recycling Zone has been a hive of innovation and activity. Yesterday, the pure demolition-related exhibitors were outnumbered by burger vans.
Admittedly, the show aisles looked remarkably busy. However, there appeared to be a couple of contributory reasons.
Up until last year, the exhibition largely filled the enormous expanse of the Rockingham Motor Speedway car park, extending from the venue’s grandstand almost to the road that serves the site. With an enormous shortfall in exhibitors, this year’s show was squeezed, falling several hundred yards short of the grandstand and making the aisles seem busier.
Another factor impacting upon the visit numbers was the presence of an unusually large number of students and equipment operators. This is based purely on gut-feel and may or may not be confirmed by the attendance statistics when they’re finally revealed. But it says much about a show when the biggest crowd of the day was gathered around a pork roast on the Pirtek stand.
Another indicator of just how bad things are could be seen in the press office, professionally run once again by Louise Murphy. In years gone by, the press office has been a veritable hive of activity with shelves running floor to ceiling bulging with press releases and brochures. This year, barely a single shelf was filled and even the press, who were taking advantage of the press office’s hospitality, seemed resigned and downbeat.
And what of the machines? Well, following immediately after Intermat in Paris, innovations were about as common as hen’s teeth to be honest. Indeed, I would struggle to think of a single reason why a demolition professional might take the time to visit the show this year.
Saddest of all, of course, was the lack of premier league exhibitors, with Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo and Liebherr all conspicuous by their absence. And even those majors – JCB and Sandvik among them – were there in a much-reduced, recession-fighting manner; JCB under the guise of its local dealer and Sandvik, traditionally a big SED supporter, down to a small display of hydraulic hammers.
Obviously, we had the video camera on hand although, as you will see from the footage that follows, we could find very little of note to point the camera at.
All we can say is that the decision to postpone this year’s Hillhead exhibition by 12 months may yet prove to be a stroke of genius.
