July 31, 2009
NOTIS stand
RosUpack-2009, Russia's leading exhibition of packaging equipment and packaging technologies, was held June 15-19 in Moscow at the Crocus Expo International Exhibition Center. Several notable points about this exhibition are worth mentioning.
First
Despite the crisis and all the talk of falling sales volumes, and despite pessimistic expectations, the exhibition saw high visitor activity.
This came as a pleasant surprise. Based on discussions with potential customers over the course of the exhibition, we completed more than 150 inquiry forms. We ran out not only of our prepared forms but simply of blank paper. Our catalogs, which as usual we brought in surplus, ran out a day before the exhibition ended.
Second
Another feature of this year's exhibition was the absence of foreign exhibiting companies. It seems that, following the winter Moscow exhibition "Upakovka. Upak-Italia," they had all concluded that, given the recent devaluation of the ruble, there was little point in doing business in Russia for the time being. There were neither Western nor Chinese companies. On one hand, the devaluation of the ruble lowered living standards in our country and, correspondingly, lowered overall demand for goods, including equipment. On the other hand, due to the sharp rise in the euro and dollar exchange rates, Western competitors temporarily withdrew from our market. This allowed us, despite the crisis, to maintain our sales levels.
RosUpack 2009
Third
Visitors to our stand were most interested in our simpler products, such as semi-automatic machines, packagers and weigh fillers, large-dose weigh fillers. This is quite understandable. Due to the financial crisis, obtaining credit became impossible, and most expensive equipment is typically purchased on credit or through leasing. Naturally, companies began showing interest in more affordable products that could be financed from their own funds. Second, the crisis triggered a redistribution of priorities in business and technology. Some enterprises are scaling back their operations, while new organizations are emerging with new ideas, initiatives and new ventures, which require equipment that, while not necessarily high-speed, is affordable.
At the same time, our more complex machines did not go unnoticed. Three MGU-NOTIS-210 horizontal packaging machines for bakery products were sold directly from the exhibition floor. As a direct result of discussions at the stand, we also signed a contract to supply a vertical machine with a vertical auger filler.
These, in brief, are the highlights and results of this year's exhibition.