Reed says many exhibitors praised the “visitor quality”. Gary Hughes, sales and marketing manager, Fraser Antistatic Techniques, dubbed Total “the first UK show in some considerable time where we have received a plentiful supply of top quality customer enquiries from the start of the opening day”. Fileder Filter Systems, meanwhile, received over 700 new leads in the first three days.
Not everyone was so effusive, however. One leading UK machinery specialist said: “Overall we were disappointed by the poor footfall. With the lack of visitors at some times our 300,000 sq m stand looked pretty empty, and overall we didn't get as much as we'd hoped for from the show.”
Unilever, however, supporter of the main seminar programme, said it had had “a very successful exhibition”. “The show gave us a great opportunity to let others know what we feel are the priority areas with respect to packaging in the context of our brands,” says Richard Parker, group manager of Unilever's Port Sunlight Packaging Design Technology Centre. “It also gave us the chance to engage with a wide range of packaging industry people, some of whom we normally never meet.”
Stephen Jarrold, sales & marketing manager at Denny Bros, was also positive: “It was a big improvement on 2004 and I'm sure the potential for 2010 is even more promising.”
RFID Solutions, the quarterly RFID magazine and Packaging Today sister publication, held successful RFID seminars throughout the show's first three days, with speakers from companies including BT Auto-ID Services, label producer Denny Bros, top UK auto-ID and e-commerce body GS1 UK, Cambridge University, and auto-id specialists Domino Printing Sciences and Codeway.
Reed says it will not have final show visitor numbers available until around June 7.
Visitors queue for entry to the recent Total Processing & Packaging show - organiser Reed Exhibitions says the exhibition was characterised by “business opportunities, lively debate and design creativity” TOTAL265
