Ally Pally Reports

[Paul Chapman]

Thanks for the explanation, Martin. Any one who has dealt with you personally, as I have done on several occasions, will know that you always take the trouble to go the extra mile.

Cheers :wink:

Paul
(a very satisfied BriMarc customer)

 

[Martin Brown]

Thanks, these comments are noted and accepted. Lets move on.

Martin and the BriMarc team

PS The getwoodworking site was a little misleading, I wasn't aware of it.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Nick

Sorry Neil, but I don't understand your point.

Sorry for not making it clear. The Brimarc web site says, "Ally Pally in conjunction with Powertek Tools Ltd., Watford."

Cheers
Neil

 

[Nick W]

Martin,

As the first-posting complainant I ought to apologise most for my immoderate phrasing, and indeed do.

Neil,

Ah, I see now.

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

Having gone last year I thought it was a little thin on the ground in places.
There was a few spots that were unattended, but going on friday I think this was due to the weather.
I was rather hoping to see some veritas products, but the kreg and tormek displays more than made up for their absence.
I didnt think there would be so many market type stalls as there was though

 

[Colin C]

As you might have guess I went on Saturday and it was good to meet some more faces .

I found the show very thin on the ground from a lot of the Ally Pally shows that I have been to .
I did not buy much at all ( metric tap to replace the one I broke and a SS pick for a friend ).

Martin
I hope that veneer will do the job

I am also glad to hear that Philly is feeling better

Good to see you all

 

[Anonymous]

well I had planned to go to the show for quite a while, but come the day I just couldn't motivate myself to go.

This woody thing is something I do for a living and I just didn't want to waste a weekend looking at tools and woodworking equipment.

 

[Philly]

No matter, Senior. You can always spend the rest of your spare time on a woodworking forum..... :wink: :lol:
Just joking - doing it all day must take the edge off it.
Cheers
Philly

 

[bramers]

what a let down, glad i didn't pay to get in.

to much cheap stuff, only highlight was having a play on the prototype clifton block plane and bullnose plane. they are hoping to bring them out next year if the bank manager lets them have the cash. buitifull block plane thought will have to wait for that one, really nice to hold. he said that they will hope to do two widths and two angles.

as i am going on about clifton they are also designing two new spokeshaves flat bottom and rounded so they should be nice.

he was telling me that someone stole the prototype for the block plane so they had to build another one and it delayed the process. you have to blame clifton though, because they left it out on display for people to look at a show. (who would leave a one of prototype sitting on a table with hundreds of people around?) madness.

did not buy much but the hammer bandsaw looks nice.

 

[davidc1075]

It is a sad state of affairs when retailers see shows as purely a profit or loss making venture as mentioned. Shows such as these are one of the few opportunities available to get hands on with tools. We have to pay for the privilege to get into the show and that doesn't include the cost of getting there and lunch etc. It makes me sick that unless companies can make money from an event they aren't interested. Most companies spend alot of money each year advertising and don't see that as money down the drain. Last year as I remember the show had problems with the organiser and that is maybe why sales were down. Using the argument that the retailer above made, the internet will put all the local tool dealers out of business who can't compete due to the high overheads of running a shop. I often buy tools locally, I can try out their tools, get a demo and if there is a problem they will sort it out for you. Will this retailer be happy if we start buying tools from Europe or the US on the internet? No. If given a choice I buy British Tools from local companies. Otherwise all we will end up with is poor quality far eastern machinery and tools. I think that there is a similarity here between local shops and the out of town supermarkets. So to end my rant what I say to the retailers is spend a little money and support these shows and talk to YOUR customers, if they are prepared to spend money coming to a show to see you is that not telling you something?

 

[bramers]

calling me a retailer !

if only you knew

 

[Martin Brown]

I can only assume the post above was aimed at me? We are not a retailer, we are a wholesaler/importer. We view these shows as a commitment to our brand marketing however I am not going to pay £10k on the off chance we may reach some consumers and opinion formers, it would be wonderful to have that sort of money to spend but we don't have it to waste. "Spend a little money" does not apply to these expensive shows.

We spend lots of money trying, very successfully, to get local retailers to sell our products. I know how much our key brands grew last year and the vast majority of customers are delighted.

Why not come and see us at Westonbirt?

Martin

 

[LyNx]

Why not come and see us at Westonbirt

Tell us more

 

[Terry Smart]

I'd like to add my support to Martin's comments.

These shows are not cheap for us to attend; of course we view things as whether or not they are profitable, which includes long-term results - we wouldn't be in business long otherwise. I doubt that many of the standholders make a large profit from shows if all of the costs are taken into consideration, but the sales on the day help to make a contribution to costs which is most welcome. If I could run a three day show for the cost of advertising in a magazine I'd be very happy!

It is a chicken and egg situation; shows started because someone decided to organise it and standholders took the chance that people would turn up and maybe spend their money. Over the years the attendance has dropped steadily so what that is telling us is that people aren't as interested in shows anymore, that is why exhibitors are dropping out. Having people say they're never going again doesn't fill us with enthusiasm to go again! It is a two way street - visitors go to see exhibitors, exhibitors go to see visitors; a drop in one leads to a drop in the other and a downward spiral starts.
Did anyone here go to the Stafford show last year? No? Nor did anyone else. We were there though, but would we go again? Unlikely.
Visitors go to shows for various reasons; I think it should be, as stated, a chance to see and try out new things. Many seem to go only to try and pick up a bargain rather than seeing the bigger picture.
At Stafford last year someone asked me for a discount on some items, saying that it had cost him x amount to get to the show. I said that if he wanted to swap his costs with mine we could talk about it. I've said it before, I'll say it again; these shows are not cheap to participate in, it is not a decision to be taken lightly.

I don't know what the attendance for Ally Pally was, not as disastrous as it could have been but certainly not as good as it should have been, so, to paraphrase a comment made earlier...
what I say to the visitors is spend a little money and support these shows and talk to YOUR suppliers, if they are prepared to spend a lot of money exhibiting at a show to see you is that not telling you something.
Otherwise shows like this will continue on that downward spiral until they just disappear.

 

[Terry Smart]

On a different note, it was great to see so many of you come along to the show, I even managed to stay out of the pictures!

Hope to see some more of you at Yandles!

 

[Tintin]

It was amusing as a newbie seeing the 'experienced visitors' with their backpacks and trolleys grabbing every brochure.

That would be me. I think i came away with two carrier bags of catalogues that would have otherwise brought the "royal mail" crashing down. I did however get some for other wookworking friends that could'nt make it this year.

I think overall I enjoyed myself but I was also slightly disapointed because I wanted to see some Lathes close up before making the jump into turning. Apart from a few small lathes only Record had a good showing so i am still not sure what the general quaility is like around the £200/£300 mark.

I enjoyed watching the demonstrations especially the removal of water marks on table tops. I think he was about 20 inches away from my seat when he set fire to the table top. :shock:

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Tintin

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers
Neil

 

[promhandicam]

I know I'm a bit slow in posting but have only just got access to the internet since saturday. It was certainly good to be able to meet up with some of the more notorious members of the UKW family and to find out that some are as bonkers in real life as their online persona's. Like others I was a bit disappointed with the market stalls selling tat - but they still seemed to be doing a reasonable business so I suppose that they must have appealed to some people. My one eye popping moment was on the festool stand - not the nice shiny gear but one of the people on the stand dressed in shirt and tie leaning over the table saw and ripping down a smallish piece of wood - no push stick and his tie flapping around within 6" of the blade. I did mention it to him as I didn't really want to see him get dragged in to his saw as someone else would have had to clear up the mess. Perhaps for the price that festool charge they have a special device that automatically stops the blade when some t**t gets their tie caught . . . I think we should be told!

Off to Germany this afternoon and may meet up with Philipp - another forum member - who lives in the same town that my head office is based in :shock:

All the best,

Steve

 

[Paul Chapman]

It was very nice meeting you, Steve. Perhaps we should have had a prize for the person who travelled the greatest distance to get to the show

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[ProShop]

I entirely agree with both Terry & Martin.

I've mentioned this before on the forum...............
It seems that quite a lot of the show going public have absolutely no idea how much the event organizers and venue owners charge the trade for floor space these days, I know personally how much these costs are. And we're talking big numbers for even a small space. And that's just the beginning of the costs involved. travel, man hours, cost of getting goods to & from the venue, staff to pay to man the stalls, etc etc..........................

Some of the exhibitors are actually only small companies in relative terms and simply do not have the resources. In business You can't spend money you simply haven't got as your not going be around for very long.

I'm sure that lots of firms would love to attend events all the time and show off their products looking for future sales and brand awareness for the future, but sometimes it's just not financially possible for some.