Just got back from Vegas and wanted to share some observations:
-Show was better attended than most of us expected. All vendors’ booths looked good. Lots of smaller, domestic CNC nesting router companies present.
-Sales conversations generally towards the larger, automated machinery such as beam saws, banders, and routers. We did sell a number of standard/classical machines but (surprisingly) little action around the K700, AD9-41, etc. If I am guessing, those customers just didn’t come to this show. Not reflective of the market in general, perhaps just this show.
-We won two AWFS Visionary awards: PCS (Preventive Contact System) for the Kappa 550 slider and for the glueBox system in our larger edgebanders.
-The PCS system is awesome and a game-changer. We took a number of orders at the show and I see strong interest, moving forward. As one of our other reps told the rest of the team, he had a shop looking at one. Owner couldn’t swallow the price, blah, blah, blah. The following week, one if his shop guys gets himself on their table saw. Pow: $40K workman’s comp claim. The owner could have could’ve had a PCS machine but instead, is paying the insurance company and still stuck with the same old table saw.
-Customers finally seem to have accepted the new normal of lengthy lead times. For most of 2021, it was denial. Now it seems to be acceptance and unerstanding, which is what we all need in order to get moving forward.
Show pics:
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