Ilapak, stand D10 –Chris Gee, Sales Manager
It’s been a good show for Ilapak this year. We’ve seen a lot of existing customers and a couple of new prospects –probably about 75% existing and around 25% new, which is great. A lot of PPMA is about meeting with our existing customers and showing them what we can do to help. We’ve just had a visit from a client who has around 30 Ilapak machines and we were able to discuss the evolution of their existing equipment and how we can update those, what benefits we can bring.
It’s been very busy for us, the most significant request being recyclable films and what are the possibilities with them. For those looking for a solution, Ilapak has what we call the IlaLab, featuring anumber of experts whose sole job is to test the customers’ packaging materials to find the right machine for them. What this means is they can pick out a recyclable film, for example; we conduct the tests, check the speeds we can get out of our machines, what temperatures are required and any inherent issues that we can see and how to overcome these. Certain films require different machines, so the customers can trial their film in a production environment with the various sealing techniques we’ve got and find out which machine can handle it, rather than having costly downtime.
Another major request is, of course, people looking at automation in a bid to reduce costs. Our job is to do anything we can to facilitate getting the product into the machine and out with the minimum amount of people involved.
Brillopak, stand K110 –David Jahn, Director
The PPMA has been very successful for Brillopak. This year we’ve been very specific by focusing on fresh produce packing, the result of which is we’ve got less leads but everyone who walks on the stand knows why we’re here because of the crates, so they’re valuable leads. We’ve also enjoyed visits from many existing customers, which is always great to see.
The obvious trend is whereby everyone two years ago was focusing on minimum wage and how to overcome this by reducing the workforce, meaning there was a need to automate. And now, with Brexit itself, there are less people and so there’s no choice. Automating is paramount –and that’s where Brillopak comes in.
Another key request relates to packaging alternatives, which are still at least two tothree times the price of conventional materials. So,the question is where will this cost increase go? Someone is going to have to take the hit –is it the consumer, the supermarket or the grower? That’s something we’ll find out in the months to come. With Brillopak, we make our machines with flexibility, which means it doesn’t matter what the packaging is, as the same machine will be able to handle it –we are entirely focused oncatering to these needs.
AVE UK, stand B20 –Steve Bradley, Sales and Marketing Director
Everyday has been worthwhile for AVE UK, particularly on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was a day when we didn’t have a lot of quantity, but what we did have was quality, and if we’re being honest, that’s what we prefer. Wednesday was a great day too;it was extremely busyfrom start to finish. Thursday was our networking day andinvolved maintaining our stand, and interacting with our existing customers.
In terms of enquiries, I’d say around 90% of enquiries were from new customers, which is great. This year, we showcased our new range of bottling equipment, capable of handling a variety of different materials within one single machine. We’ve had a fair few clients come to our stand to request a solution for handling sustainable materials such as aluminium bottles, which is exactly why we’re here –to show them that we have machines that are capable of switching to plastic alternatives.
Fortress, stand B01 –Kevin Shackell, Head of UK Sales
Fortress has a number of innovations to show, which has raised a lot of interest, and we’ve been carrying out demonstrations and just listening to our customers, finding out what their problems are and trying to help themout as best we can.
The beauty of it is, in regard torecurring requests, you don’t know what they’re going to visit with. If I had to pick one thing, I couldn’t really. It’s so diverse and a very mixed bag –there are no significant changes within the industry or any significant changes within the codes of practice or compliance, so it’s business as usual. They just want to see what innovation we’re bringing to the show and are focused on finding out what detection levels we can offer to boost the performance of their production line.
We launched a checkweigher; it’s new to our product range and we haven’t had this available to us before. So,this has received a lot of interest from people who are very familiar with the concept and equipment, but now that we are going to manufacture it,they are interested in dealing with Fortress and utilising the checkweigher through us as a solutions provider.
