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SHOW REPORT
Exhibitors commend Tyrexpo Africa as visitor numbers increase for third staging of exhibition
Sir Tom Farmer stars in show’s first tyre industry conference
Delegates and exhibitors from more than 60 countries met to do business in Johannesburg, South Africa in early March, contributing to a highly successful third staging of Tyrexpo Africa.
ECI sales director Rowena Suthers, comments: “The real success of Tyrexpo Africa was the positive attitude of everyone involved. The global recession has affected every business in some way, but the quality of visitors who came to Johannesburg with the intention of meeting new suppliers and doing business was extremely impressive. The fact that they came in increased numbers compared to the last show in 2008 was a great bonus and demonstrated that many people in the industry are feeling more positive than they were at the end of last year.“
Independently audited figures confirm a healthy increase in visitor numbers to southern Africa’s only dedicated tyre and equipment exhibition. The 5% increase in visitor numbers to 2,602, compared to the 2008 exhibition, was confirmed by a busy trading environment which has been praised by the record number of 135 exhibitors. ECI says this further endorses the role for a quality, niche-market tyre and workshop equipment trade event.
“We were pleased with the increase in African visitors to our stand this year which is a clear indication that Africa will be an important part of our plans going forward. The fact that the show is run in such professional manner has made it truly worth our while.”
David Barendse, managing director of Hofmann Megaplan, explains: “Tyrexpo Africa’10 was a great success for Hofmann Megaplan, a contributing factor to the show I believe was that the show tied in with other tyre related events such as the launch of a new Firestone tyre we therefore started off with delegates from all over South Africa. We would like to keep supporting the event and we will definitely be attending the next show.”
Dutch tyre distributor Bandenmarkt also reported increased sales at the exhibition. “Thank you for your excellent organisation of Tyrexpo Africa’10 in Johannesburg,” says Leen van’t Hof. “All three times that we have exhibited at Tyrexpo Africa in 2006, 2008 and 2010 were good for Bandenmarkt, with more sales achieved at each exhibition.”
Arthur Birkin from Richards Bay Tyres confirmed “We enjoyed good success at our stand, we were positive and wanted this to work for us, we put a lot of work into it as a team and got a lot out of it. We believe that you need to get excited about your business and share this with the visitors coming to your stand. By doing this we had excellent success”
While exhibitors and delegates took a generally positive view of the event they were also highly critical of the attitude of many of the major tyre manufacturers, who chose not to exhibit. “It is enormously frustrating for us as organisers and is obviously disappointing to those that do invest time and money into the show,” says Rowena Suthers.
“While domestic tyre makers were mostly absent their places were filled by exporters from countries like China, who commanded a virtual monopoly of the traders who came to the show to buy tyres. As organisers, we will continue our endeavours to encourage the major manufacturers to exhibit, both to demonstrate support for their customers and the industry at large.
Another high profile speaker, Georg Schramm, head of marketing at Dunlop/Apollo, delivered a hard-hitting and impassioned presentation warning of the dangers to the South African tyre manufacturing industry of unregulated trade with China and India. “China and India are already having a significant impact on this region - positive in some regards, but in many cases very negative,” said Schramm. “I believe that the impact of unregulated trade relations with China and, to a lesser degree India, in South Africa, if not controlled, will lead to the decimation of the South African manufacturing environment with a catastrophic knock-on effect for socio economic development in the region.” Chinese tyres were also the subject of David Wilson’s presentation, although the UK Retread Manufacturers Association director concentrated on the issues relating to the retreadability of Chinese truck tyres in European markets.
Dr Etienne Human explained the remit, work and ambition for South Africa’s National Waste Tyre Project which seeks to establish a collection, recycling and commercial infrastructure for used tyres.
“The positive impact that our first tyre industry conference achieved was also a real plus point for the whole exhibition and reflects the excellent contributions of our keynote speakers, led by Sir Tom Farmer,” says Rowena Suthers.
Tyrexpo Africa took place at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg (SCC), South Africa on 4, 5 and 6 March 2010.
Visit www.eci-international.com for more exhibitor quotes and endorsements.
About ECI International ECI International is a privately owned exhibition business. In addition to Tyrexpo Africa, the company is the owner and organiser of Brityrex International in the UK (5,6,7 October 2010) Tyrexpo Asia in Singapore (29,30,31 March 2011) and Tyrexpo India in Chennai (5,6,7 July 2011) www.eci-international.com. |
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Show
organiser ECI International was particularly pleased that the exhibition
successfully withstood the challenges posed to all businesses in the
sector by the global recession and emerged with confidence as a result.
Charl
de Villiers, managing director of Tyrecor agrees, saying: “Tyrexpo Africa
2010 has given Tyrecor / Infinity the platform to further grow our
presence in the Southern African markets; this has not only given us the
much needed exposure on a regional level but also afforded us the
opportunity to give our current customer base in South Africa a glimpse of
what can be expected in years to come. 
And
Pieter Kruger, managing director of Tubestone, adds: “We are extremely
happy to say that we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of visitors
to our booth. We are also happy to report that 60% of our visitors were
new leads for us to follow up. It also brought the visitors that are
really interested in finding new suppliers to the show.” 
“Tyrexpo
Africa provided an excellent networking and marketing platform for
Fleetaid,” says the company’s marketing and sales manager, Natalie
Higgins. “As an electronic tyre inspection solution provider it was an
important and highly relevant exhibition for us to attend. We experienced
great exposure and positive interest from the delegates and visitors.”
An
added attraction at this year’s exhibition was a one-day tyre industry
conference, which proved to be a major talking point. Keynote speaker Sir
Tom Farmer was the star attraction, holding the audience enthralled as he
recounted tales of the Kwik-Fit experience and emphasised his personal
philosophy of the importance of people to the success of any business. Sir
Tom spoke for over an hour and received three ovations. Conference
chairman Roger Mcleerey described the presentation as ‘inspirational’.
Francois
Ehlers, Dave Linton and Peter Watts from Imperial Logistics examined the
role of the tyre industry in contributing to an efficient logistics
operation while