Quotes from the UK

Post-ACHEMA is always pre-ACHEMA: how satisfied exhibiting companies are with the last ACHEMA determines their participation at the next event. Registrations for ACHEMA 2006, scheduled for 15 to 19 May in Frankfurt am Main, are already in full swing.
One of the largest exhibiting countries at ACHEMA 2003 was the United Kingdom, with over 200 companies attending directly in 2003 and many more through their German subsidiaries. Their experience gives a valuable insight into the benefits of exhibiting at ACHEMA. In the following some examples are given for selected exhibition groups.

Pumps, compressors, valves and fittings
FCX International, a specialist manufacturer and distributor of flow control products, enjoyed genuine success at ACHEMA 2003. Chief Executive John Perkins explained: ”The event was truly international with top level attendance from the whole supply chain – including end users, contractors, raw material suppliers, component suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. All the major players from both customer and supplier sides were there.”
Ian Turner, Sales Director of Imtex Controls, a small manufacturing and marketing company specializing in the supply of advanced valve monitoring, communication and control systems said: ”Since attending ACHEMA 2003, Imtex export sales have increased to approximately 50% of total sales revenue. Many new potential contacts were made at the show and enquiries and orders have been flowing into the company ever since, from customers across the world.“

The British Valve and Actuator Association (BVAA) represents the interests of more than 60 British companies who are responsible for over £500 million sales each year. One of their roles is to promote and represent members and their products with customers and end users at UK and international levels. Gill McNeill, Marketing Coordinator at BVAA agrees that ACHEMA ”is the most important worldwide exhibition for valve and actuator manufacturers. We have attended the last two shows to support and promote our members’ products with their company brochures and other literature. We take a booth directly under the BVAA name, but also help those members who book their own exhibition space.”
Finally, in this exhibition group it is interesting to look at the experience of a small start-up company. Membrane Extraction Technology (MET) is an award-winning chemical engineering company, with particular expertise in chemical separations using membrane technologies. Dr Lina Christopoulou, the company’s Commercial Development Manager said: “Our main objective in exhibiting at ACHEMA 2003 was to develop an understanding of the needs and opportunities for our company in the international marketplace, particularly in the areas of environmental protection and organic solvent nanofiltration. Our booth was visited by a wide range of people, of most interest to us being senior process development engineers in major chemical and pharmaceutical companies. By the end of the fair we had made close to 100 interesting new contacts. As a result of our attendance, we were able to share information about our technologies with the right people in approximately 30 major pharmaceutical and chemical companies, such as GSK, Degussa and Dow.

Laboratory and analytical techniques
This exhibition group has the strongest support from British companies, much of which is due to the work of GAMBICA, the trade association that represents the interests of companies in the instrumentation, control, automation and laboratory technology industry in the UK, who manage much of this British participation, and seek to deliver financial support for exhibitors from the Government. Colin Andrews, Deputy Director of GAMBICA said: ”ACHEMA is arguably the most important global show for suppliers of laboratory and analytical equipment. As well as being visited by large numbers of key customers from Germany and elsewhere in Europe, it is attended by all the significant dealers and distributors from the rest of the world. This makes it the most important showcase for suppliers and a key meeting point for the industry and its customers. GAMBICA has organized a group at ACHEMA for many years with around 40 exhibiting companies in 2003. There is no doubt that this is a very successful enterprise for our exhibitors and we expect strong demand for space in 2006.”
Pharmaceutical, packaging and storage techniques
This exhibition group was well represented by British companies, too – including some that were exhibiting at ACHEMA for the first time. Andrew Manly, General Secretary of the PPMA, the UK’s only trade organization representing processing and packaging equipment suppliers, said: “ACHEMA is a cornerstone event for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries and we believe that increasing specialization and globalization can only make it more important as an exhibition. The event has both the mass and focus to attract specialists from the pharmaceutical and chemical sector in large numbers. It is an ideal platform to meet both new and existing customers and launch new products. Its status in the industries it serves is without question, so it is very important that UK manufacturers participate fully. Many high technology products are available from UK sources as well as top quality machinery for more general use.” At the 2006 show, PPMA intend to become more directly involved with promoting the exhibition to its members and will be fully supporting efforts to increase the number of processing and packaging machinery companies exhibiting from the UK.
Manesty are the world’s largest supplier of solid dose pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment, with core businesses in tablet presses, tablet coaters and tablet tooling. Linda Cashmore, Marketing Services Manager at Manesty, said: “We attend ACHEMA because it is one of the largest and most successful shows and is particularly important to the process industry. At the 2003 show, Manesty launched the largest press the company have produced to date. Also after a successful launch at ACHEMA 2000 of the laboratory/small scale pilot plant Tablet Coating Machine, ACHEMA 2003 saw the launch of a larger version in this product range.” Manesty had a total of 361 visitors coming from 297 companies. Although most were from Germany, there were significantly large numbers of visitors from India, Indonesia and Switzerland.
But, not only larger and well-established manufacturers exhibited at ACHEMA 2003. Pharma Packaging Systems (PPS) was established in 2002 to manufacture specialized packaging systems to the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to their own manufactured systems PPS has a number of key OEM suppliers around Europe that allow the supply of complete turn-key solutions for both solid and liquid dosage products. Andrew Kennedy, their Sales Director said: “Taking a small booth at the show was a big investment for us, so early in our company’s life, but we knew from our staff’s previous experience that ACHEMA was a major meeting place for our customers and suppliers. In this respect the show exceeded our expectations both in terms of the number and the quality of customers and our participation has resulted in a substantial packaging line order from a previously unknown customer.
Mechanical processes
British suppliers to the pharmaceutical industry were also well represented in this exhibition group. Powder Systems Limited (PSL) design and build high containment biopharmaceutical equipment for the latest generation of high potency drugs. Connie Bird, Marketing Executive at PSL said: “About 75% of turnover is exported, so international trade shows are an essential part of our marketing activities. We exhibited at ACHEMA because of the unmatched quality and quantity of visitors attending the event. ACHEMA 2003 was a great success for PSL. We met with a large number of existing and new contacts, mainly for the German, Swiss, French, UK, Scandinavian & American markets which have already resulted in a considerable increase of sales. Since our exposure at ACHEMA 2003, we have also had particularly good success with OEM’s in Germany who have offered our product as an enhancement to their own equipment. We can directly attribute sales of over £250k to ACHEMA, and expect this figure to rise much further with the conversion of several larger isolator and filter dryer enquiries in UK and throughout Europe.”
Thomas Broadbent & Sons is a leading manufacturer of centrifuges for solids/liquids separation in the international chemicals, fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. Broadbent has been particularly successful throughout Asia, with recent orders from China, India and Thailand and Taiwan. John Wright, Broadbent’s Business Development Manager said: “ACHEMA 2003 worked well for our company, providing us with a substantial number of enquiries and valuable contacts. In addition it proved to be a cost-effective platform for collecting valuable market intelligence and a central point for face-to-face meetings with a variety of existing and potential specifiers and buyers from the international process industries, from all over the world. As a result of our positive experience in Frankfurt, we chose to attend the AchemAsia show in Beijing in 2004.