Makers of mechanics trucks and their accessories had an outsized presence at the biennial International Construction and Utilities Exposition early this fall in Louisville, Ky.
Jeff Williams, inside sales rep for Oregon-based Highway Products, said the show was amazing for his company, which was exhibiting at ICUEE for the first time. “We now get to hear compliments and constructive criticism about our products when they actually get to touch them, which we never get otherwise,” Williams said.
Like other exhibitors, Williams was also impressed with the “quality” of attendees, such as fleet managers.
“We may get one call a week from a fleet manager who’s got 1,200 (or) 5,000 vehicles. I’ve met 20 of them within two hours here,” Williams said. “It’s something I can never get from the inbound phone (or) off our website.”
As result, while Highway Products had a budget of about 10 times what it would typically spend on a trade show, “already I can tell it was so worth it based upon the leads I got and the people I’ve spoken to, the feedback from customers, existing customers that have come and finally got to meet us in person, you know, from the East Coast, which we never ever get to see,” Williams said.
Exhibition attracts record numbers
The exhibition, also known as “The Demo Expo,” drew a record crowd of 18,000 registered attendees to the Kentucky Exposition Center, said a news release from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which organizes the show. That surpassed attendance at the previous Demo Expo in 2013 by 13 percent.
“Registrants came from all 50 states, nine of the 10 Canadian provinces and more than 60 other countries worldwide,” the release said.
Many attendees compared the show to a mini-ConExpo-Con/Agg, a reference to the triennial heavy equipment show in Las Vegas that the AEM also organizes. ConExpo typically draws more than 100,000 visitors, about six times as many as attend The Demo Expo.
Taking part in the ICUEE show is nevertheless a gruelling affair. The 2015 show, which took place Sept. 29-Oct. 1, boasted more than 950 exhibitors and over 1.2 million net square feet of exhibition space, both indoors and outdoors.
Among the pieces of equipment displayed at The Demo Expo were dozens of service trucks — from manufacturers like Stellar Industries, Iowa Mold Tooling Inc., Palfinger, and Maintainer of Iowa Corporation. Many of those trucks were equipped with small cranes from those manufacturers as well as others, such as Venco Venturo LLC, Jomac Ltd., Auto Crane, and Italy-based Next Hydraulics s.r.l., which makes Cobra cranes.
One such Cobra crane at the show was fitted to a service body made by Pride Bodies of Cambridge, Ont. Pride built the unit, which is equipped with a high-rail system for travelling on railroad tracks, for Canadian Pacific Railway.
“CP’s very proud of the vehicle and worked hand in hand putting it together,” said Kevin Lanthier, Pride’s sales coordinator. “So we’ve had CP’s fleet manager here, showing it off to some of the other (rail) guys down south. That’s been a good opportunity for us to meet new leads.”
While it was Lanthier’s first time at the Demo Expo, Pride has exhibited at the show before. He described it as a good show for his company.
“I didn’t know a thing about Kentucky before I got here,” Lanthier said. “The people are very nice. Everyone’s got their A game it seems like today and it’s very friendly, a nice atmosphere.”
Early rain sends everyone indoors
For the outdoor exhibitors, however, this year’s show got off to a soggy start. After a sunbaked day on Monday, Sept. 28 as exhibitors were putting their booths together, rain drenched the outdoor exhibits when the show opened the next day. That was good news for inside exhibitors as attendees sought refuge. But not so good for those stuck outside.
It could have been worse, though. Forecasts called for thunder showers Tuesday but they didn’t materialize.
Inside a big tent at the Ford booth on one of the outdoor exhibition areas, John Burke was able to keep relatively dry. The central sales manager of commercial vehicles and modifications for Monroe Truck Equipment, Burke was promoting a Monroe body on a Ford chassis. “At least people were coming here to get out of the rain. It helped us out,” Burke said, noting that traffic picked up considerably the next day. (Monroe, which is based in Wisconsin, also had its own booth on the more distant lot L of the exhibition grounds.)
Like many others, Burke said the show is very important for service body makers. “A lot of people know the Monroe brand and what we do but some of them don’t, you know,” Burke said. “I was just talking to somebody and they didn’t realize that we had our own bodies and the differences between that and some of our competitors.”
Among the exhibitors that benefited from being inside was Liftmoore Inc., a manufacturer of cranes for service trucks. “We’ve been outside until about three shows ago,” said Steve Coffee, Liftmoore’s national sales manager. “It was a good decision we feel like to move indoors.”
Being indoors also benefited EZ Stak LLC, said marketing manager Bruce Hardy. Reciting what a colleague had observed, Hardy said, “We were slammed. We can thank the rain for that.”
EZ Stak, which makes drawer systems for service bodies as its core product, also benefited from some advance preparation. “We sent postcards out. We sent emails out. We ran ads,” Hardy said. “So I think that helped too.”
Plenty of quality leads
Back outside, Donna Popp-Bruesewitz, communications manager with Stellar Industries Inc., said that traffic picked up after Tuesday’s deluge and Wednesday’s intermittent sprinkles. “I think the leads we have gathered are definitely quality leads and we’ll be following up the next couple of weeks and closing some deals,” Popp-Bruesewitz said.
Stellar didn’t launch any news products at ICUEE, although the company was touting its CBT Plus crane controller, introduced at the 2014 ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas. Two years ago, Stellar didn’t exhibit at ICUEE at all. “We had enough people come and say we missed you there,” Popp-Bruesewitz said. “So we decided to come back and give it another try. And, you know, I think it’s worth being here.”
This year’s ICUEE show is more important ever because of the worldwide slump in the oil and gas industries, noted Dain Samuelson, marketing manager with Caseco Truck Body.
“And construction has been picking back up and filling that void,” Samuelson said. “So, actually coming to this show and seeing how much construction is back is encouraging to say the least.”
Venco Venturo Industries LLC has been exhibiting at ICUEE for as long as company president Brett Collins can remember. And he joined the firm in 1994.
Despite the weather, the show is a great event for Venco Venturo, probably its second most important show after the NTEA’s annual Work Truck Show.
“It’s only an hour and a half away from our home city of Cincinnati,” Collins said of ICUEE. “So we get to connect with a lot of our customers. It’s become a bit of an up-fitter show as well. So we get to connect with our various truck builders from this part of the world.”
Venco Venturo’s products include truck cranes for service bodies. The company also partners with California-based Phenix Enterprises, which builds service bodies for Venco Venturo.
Collins said the show has been getting bigger all the time. It also serves to astound him how many competitors, including recent entrants, his company has in the industry.
“Of course, the recovery from the great recession has really been strong in our industry,” Collins said. “We’ve seen a lot of growth. Venturo itself has grown 45 percent in just two years. So it’s bigger, better, more technologically advanced equipment.”
Time for a coming out party
For Utility 1 Source of Kansas City, this ICUEE was a “coming out party,” said inside sales manager Jim Hottel. The company is an umbrella brand for five firms, including Custom Truck & Equipment, which has its own lines of service bodies. Utility 1 Source companies are also dealers for the likes of Iowa Mold Tooling, Stellar, and Reading, Hottel said.
At ICUEE, the Utility 1 Source logo could be seen almost anywhere one turned. According to the company website, it had 52 units on exhibition in the outdoor lots. They included a CTE high-rail service truck.
For Teamco Inc., makers of Feterl service bodies, exhibiting at the show is important for “name recognition,” said Teamco president Charles Mehlhaf. Teamco acquired the Feterl brand and assets in December 2011 following about five years in which the trucks weren’t made. Once Teamco resurrected the brand, it had to connect with former customers to let them knows that parts and new bodies were now available, he said.
“Over the last couple of years we’ve grown our business substantially from what it was when we got it to begin with,” said Mehlhaf, who overall was “pretty satisfied” with the show despite the weather.
For a company that makes a niche product, such as air compressors, ICUEE is valuable “to just show that you’re in this business,” said Mike Pettigrew, marketing manager for VMAC (Vehicle Mounted Air Compressors), based in Nanaimo, B.C.
“You actually have to be in front of people, show them that you’re a real company, that your products are available, and that they can touch them and feel them,” Pettigrew said.
For Vanair Manufacturing Inc., another maker of compressors, ICUEE is “the best show that we’ve got,” said Jim Perschke, Vanair’s vice-president of sales.
“So no matter what, every time we come here it’s a solid show for us,” Perschke said. “It wouldn’t matter if the weather’s good or bad. Our customers are here and we have to be here.”
How ICUEE compares with WTS
The biennial ICUEE inevitably draws comparisons with the annual Work Truck Show in Indianapolis. A common observation was that the Work Truck Show is more geared toward distributors whereas ICUEE attracts more end users, particularly in the utilities sectors.
“Well, the Work Truck Show I would say that is our industry show,” said Roy O’Neal, sales manager for TruckCraft Corporation, which is based in Pennsylvania. “People know our name there. Nobody knows our name here. So we’re having to get our name around this one, whereas at that one (the Work Truck Show) all of our dealers come. This one we’re hoping to find new dealers.”
Fritz Ekstam, general manager of Jomac Ltd., noted that ICUEE is more oriented toward utilities, which means many attendees aren’t necessarily looking for the service bodies and cranes his company manufactures. “But obviously there’s a lot of competitors here. So it gives you some exposure,” said Ekstam, who company had a truck equipped with a VMAC underhood compressor at the latter’s booth.
The Knapheide Manufacturing Company has a longstanding tradition of showing 10 to 12 trucks at ICUEE, said Brian Richards, marketing communications manager.
“It gives us an opportunity to show the power generation, distribution, construction, equipment utilities companies, the customization that we can offer to those customers,” said Richards, noting that the show broke attendance records despite the weather.
“You never know about the weather in Louisville come late September, October, so it’s always weather dependent,” Richards added. “But we see a better influx of customers over the years as we’ve kind of spread across and around our product lines.”
Whole lot of walking going on
Suppliers also attended the show, looking for customers among the exhibitors. For example, Eberhard Manufacturing Company makes door latches and hinges for service bodies. It didn’t have a booth at ICUEE but two of its regional sales managers, Bob Dinallo and Thegen Robbins, made plenty of connections just by walking around.
“It’s a big show,” Dinallo said as he stopped by the Reading Truck Body booth. “It’s a lot of walking and a lot of manufacturers. It’s a good opportunity for us to see our product in action.”
Dinallo also received some suggestions from Craig Bonham, vice-president of business development with Ready Truck Body LLC, about how to make hardware more ergonomic.
“The expectations of the customers, they want the back of the truck to look as great as the front of the truck. And that goes with the technology swing that needs to pick up pace,” Bonham said in an interview later. “The OEM manufacturers right now out there are creating products that have new ergonomical features in them that make the work life for the customer very, very pleasant.”
As for the ICUEE show itself, Bonham said, “There are people from all facets of the industry and many of the customers come here in hopes of finding the next win for their business.”
On that score, the show was “fantastic” as always, he said. “If you’re in the business, you need to be here.”
