As March 2022 drew to a close XYZ Machine Tools recorded its best ever month, with a sales order intake of £3.4 million. This figure was a pleasant surprise as with MACH just around the corner, it was assumed that customers would wait to make a purchase at the long-awaited exhibition.
“We had little idea of how MACH would go,” stated XYZ Machine Tools’ managing director, Nigel Atherton. “With people still anxious about Covid and the level of sales in March [it] made us think that attendance at the show may be poor, with people ordering machines instead of visiting the show. How wrong we were. From day one of MACH, our stand was busy and the level of enquiries, and new orders resulting from the week are very encouraging and indicate that April will be an even better month than March.”
By the end of the exhibition XYZ Machine Tools had recorded almost 500 leads, 100 of which were described as ‘hot’, of which 32 have already placed orders. Another 192 customers indicated they would be placing orders in the next 2-3 months, with a further 162 suggesting a six-month lag to placing an order.
New orders that can be directly attributed to MACH 2022 currently stand at 37 machines from 32 customers. This is made up of a mix of three manual machines, 20 ProtoTRAK controlled mills and lathes, 14 Siemens controlled machines, a mix of vertical machining centres, turning centres and 5-axis machining centres. The value of these sales is in excess of £2.4 million.
“With these sales and ongoing negotiations, we are extremely happy with our attendance at MACH and a bonus was that even with our existing database of engineering companies - which extends to over 20,000 names - we still managed to have conversations with 32 companies that we hadn’t come across before,” added Atherton. “Also reassuring is that our current levels of business are exceeding pre-Covid levels and there is little sign of buying confidence slowing down.”
