Page 12 - OPE July 2019

INDUSTRY
Fieldays 2019
“[Fieldays 2019] had a different feel to it and I don’t know whether it was the mix of people who were there or whether it was the volumes
of people who were there on different days”
down slightly but the good weather made the outdoor areas busier and increased foot traffic for us,” she says.
Featuring a prominent demo area, Hansa’s new corner site was better located next to key partners Honda, who supply our engines,andSTIHL,whoseshopsareoften also Hansa dealers.
“There was a good synergy: people who would intentionally visit Honda or STIHL are after quality and durability and tend to be the people in the right mindset to come and look at our product, too,” says Chloe.
“More often than not, people visiting our site were existing customers who were happy with the chipper they owned and some brought friends to show them what they had.”
In terms of new product, Hansa was showing a new swivel outlet option to
the popular C13 chipper. Unlike the fixed outlet, the swivel upgrade means you can discharge to either side and is available for all C13 models.
How about Hansa’s ROI? “Fieldays is the most expensive event we attend and we
do recoup some of the cost through event sales, but we mainly enjoy seeing sales flow on through the dealers afterwards, so it’s a win-win there,” says Chloe Leung.
“Not all the dealerships will have all the models available so it’s good for people to see them in action and buy at a later date through their local dealer.”
Looking beyond the numbers
BE Pressure GM, John Lahman, says the 2019 event “washed up pretty well in the
end after the first couple of days when it seemed to me that the numbers were down.
“People didn’t want to make their
mind up at the show,” says John, quickly qualifying: “However, in the weeks following, show-related enquiries remained strongand“extremelypositive”,hesays.
Meanwhile at Spraytech, Steve Hanna, Marketing Manager, feels that attendance numbers didn’t quite correspond with
the quoted figures but adds that reported enquiries and sales were on a par with most years in what he views as a stable agri sector.
Representing Yamaha generators, which made their debut at Fieldays in 2018, Chris Eeles describes Yamaha’s stand as “busy but not perhaps as busy as last year” but still a positive outcome for the still freshly returned generator brand, nonetheless.
Looking up in scale now, Shaun Monteith, Sales Manager for Kubota, concludes that the Fieldays crowds definitely seemed down on previous years across all days but the vibe from customers who walked onto the stand was still very positive.
“Our approach this year was slightly different in that we had a few less machines on site to try to keep costs down.
“On the whole, leads were down on last year but the feeling was that the leads were strong ones.
“Our gut feeling on the broader health of the agri sector is still positive overall as most sectors are still very buoyant with the dairy pay-out looking to be around the $7 mark.” n
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