Looking back on a successful show: Day Four at Paperworld 2018
January 31, 2018
As another fruitful trade show drew to a close, exhibitors shared with The Recycler their highlights of the event.
2018’s staging of the Paperworld trade show at Messe Frankfurt, including the Remanexpo product group, concluded yesterday evening, bringing to a close four days which saw new partnerships made and old friendships strengthened, as well as a great deal of insight, information, opportunity and optimism.
“This show is a very special show,” explained Ninestar’s Marketing Director Helena Huang when describing her highlights of the last four days, “our European partners and customers were one big family together again.” She added that that sense of cooperation lay behind the company’s current tagline, based around the ideas of co-innovation together.
For certain companies, the success of Paperworld was tied in with personal glory, with both newly-crowned Reseller of the Year Katun, and three-time Remanufacturer of the Year wta Carsten Weser, listing their victories at The Recycler Awards among their highlights.
Katun’s EAME Marketing Director, Cornelis Alderlieste, spoke of his pride at the award, and described it as “a confirmation from the industry that the Katun brand is still strong, and that we still matter within the market, and that’s a huge compliment.”
Similarly, Lee Fowler, wta’s Business Development Manager, told The Recycler yesterday that the company’s award was the result of “a great team effort – it’s all the hard work from all our team […] without a great backing team behind us, the production, back office staff, we wouldn’t have the service we’ve got, and it’s an appreciation from all our customers and partners that continue to vote for us, so we must be doing something right!”
Amongst the other high points of Paperworld for the Suhl-based remanufacturer was the huge number of visitors to the show. “Saturday – it was great, Saturday,” explained Thomas Lentes, Head of Marketing, “for me, the best Saturday ever.” Fowler also praised the diversity and global spread of the visitors, stating that although “you always get a lot of the same countries that visit, this year there seemed to be some emerging countries”, particularly highlighting visitors from across Africa and the Middle East. “If you look at the customer mix we’ve got,” he added, “there’s real good potential for us this time.”
The increased footfall of customers was also named as real strong point by Gikar’s Senior Manager, Charlie Ray, and Clover Imaging Group’s Scott Odom, Director of Sales (EMEA East & South). “This year, the number of customers coming [to Gikar’s booth] has increased by around 13 percent,” explained Ray, whose company was attending its third Paperworld. “We have had much more deep, in-depth talking with some customers, and some potential co-operators and partners.”
Clover’s Odom agreed, picking as his highlight that “I met a lot of new customers – and existing customers that I don’t normally get to see,” and paying tribute to the trade show as an international meeting place, bringing new and old faces together under one roof.
For Hubei Dinglong’s General Manager (Europe), Ian Copsey, the secret to a successful show lay in the tactic of planning ahead: “It’s been very good, but that is because we always pre-appoint all of our meetings. Over the four days, I had something like twenty-four, twenty-five, pre-appointed meetings with both printer and copier remanufacturers, refillers, or distribution companies for raw materials – so for me, it’s been a good show, absolutely.”
Copsey also specified one further highlight of Paperworld – “when I get to the hotel room and take my shoes off!” – something which many of those in attendance will surely be able to agree with.
Elsewhere in Hall 6.0 during Tuesday, The Recycler Live Frankfurt Seminars schedule concluded at the Seminar Theatre with a joint presentation by Peter Mayhew and David Connett, of Lightwords and Connett & Unland respectively, in which the pair provided a global overview of the office print market, and the place of the remanufacturing industry within it.
The Recycler would like to thank all exhibitors, visitors, and Messe Frankfurt staff for their contributions to another fantastic trade show, and looks forward to seeing you again in 2019. To catch up on previous news from this year’s show, visit here, here, and here, and to read our full, in-depth report on everything that happened in Frankfurt, look out for our Paperworld 2018 review, in Issue 304 of The Recycler, to be published in a few weeks time.
Categories : World Focus
Tags : Frankfurt Messe Frankfurt Paperworld Paperworld 2018 Remanexpo
