Our predictions of the closure of the SED exhibition make the news no easier to bear.
There are times, frankly, when it would be nice to be proven wrong; Saturday afternoon at about 2.55, for example, just after we have despairingly predicted yet another defeat for our beloved West Ham United.
With the news that the UK’s largest construction equipment exhibition – SED (Site Equipment Demonstration) has succumbed to the recession and management that is Mr Magoo-like in its short-sightedness, we would have liked to have been proven wrong again.
Sadly, after 45 years of loyal and uninterrupted service, SED has closed, a victim of the current economic crisis and an organiser that can’t see construction for the pile of beans it is too busy counting. As we have mentioned previously, the exhibiton’s organisers were once of and for the industry. They were on site, come rain or shine, up to their knees and axles in the mud that seemed to categorise the early SED shows.
Sadly, they were replaced by men in sharp suits, sporting sharp haircuts, and wielding sharp economic scalpels aimed at anything that didn’t turn a fast buck or which might threaten to get their shiny shoes dirty.
That the UK construction and demolition equipment industry is in recession there can be little doubt. But while organisers in years gone by would have ridden the industry lows to gain from the industry highs, the current incumbents lack such foresight and fortitude, and would apparently prefer to give up than to fight.
As a result, some very good people now find themselves out of work, consigned to the employment scrapheap by people devoid of passion for this industry of ours, and the cajones to stand by an industry from which they have happily drawn sizable profits for years.
Of course, there is always the vain hope that someone will rescue this superb show before the shutters come down for a final time. And given the cyclical nature of this business, anyone bold enough to do so would surely see their bravery rewarded manifold. But, in the meantime, our thoughts are with the team behind what used to be “the greatest show in earth”.
