AIMSAD, which promotes the Turkish woodworking machinery industry by participating in many fairs and organizations held abroad, gave information about the sector to the visitors at the stand it opened at the EUROBOIS Fair held in France.
Continuing its efforts for its member companies to diversify their export markets, AIMSAD participated in the Eurobois Fair, which was held in Lyon Eurexpo, France, between 14-17 June 2022, with its five member companies. During the fair, visitors showed great interest in the stands of AIMSAD member companies and their state-of-the-art products and services. At Eurobois Fair, EDDA, Turanlar Makine, Elfamak, Bala Makina and Isımek companies, which are members of AIMSAD, opened stands and promoted both their companies and the industry.
The AIMSAD stand was frequently visited by the visitors at the fair, which continued intensely for four days.
Consul General visited AIMSAD stand
At the fair, T.R. Lyon Consul General Müslüm Aygün and his delegation visited the AIMSAD stand and received information about the Turkish woodworking machinery industry from the general secretary of the association, Arif Onur Kaçak.
“Visitors were impressed by the successful work of our industry”
Making an evaluation about the participation of AIMSAD and its member companies in the Eurobois Fair, AIMSAD Secretary General Arif Onur Kaçak continued his words as follows; “France, like many other European countries, is among our important target markets. For this reason, we participated in this fair for the first time this year in order to see the needs and demands of both France and other countries in its immediate geography. Together with us, five member companies opened a booth here. Visitors from both Europe and other regions were impressed by the successful work of the Turkish woodworking machinery industry. Many people visited our stand and received information about our companies from us. In the rest of the year, we will continue to take part in international fairs and organizations and promote our sector.”
“We had a productive fair”
Kübra Turan- Seçkin Turan / Turanlar Makine
As Turanlar Makine, we participated in the Eurobis Fair together with our distributor in Lyon. In general, it was good and productive for us, we were satisfied with the fair. It is not enough to evaluate this fair only in terms of European buyers. In general, it is necessary to look at this fair as the Middle East, Africa and Europe, because many of our customers came from Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, Germany, Portugal and France and there were warm developments. Our customers liked the work quality and the parts used in the machine and they liked our machines. We also had sales during the fair. The machines we brought to the fair were sold to France. And we have new orders to Africa. As a company, of course, we would like to participate in the fair again. Fairs are actually the meeting point of old and new customers. We welcome our old customers, whom we have not seen for years, at our stand and make new meetings, the same applies to new customers. As they see us in high-capacity fairs, their trust in our company increases.
“Thanks to The Fairs, European countries see that we are competitive manufacturers ”
Recep Tunc / EDDA
Eurobois Fair is a very interesting fair for companies producing wood machinery and wood solutions in a high potential producer country. The number of participants is quite sufficient and the mass of quality producers is very high. Since French manufacturers do not participate in wider international fairs as direct visitors, we were curious about what kind of result we would get when we decided to exhibit our products as exhibitors in this country. What we see with the participation is that they attach great importance to automation, systems and reducing their costs in order to minimize the impact of global inflation increases after the pandemic in their companies. We are very happy to be able to present these demands to our customers. As a company that participated for the first time, we had a very high quality, efficient and beneficial fair for entering the region.
Western European countries, in particular, state that they see Turkey as a fruit and vegetable exporter, that they do not know that it is such a machinery exporter, that we can offer high-quality solutions, and that they see that we can become competitive producers thanks to these fairs. Since they are in the free trade zone, we see that they have doubts in order to receive sales and, most importantly, after-sales service quickly and reliably within this freedom. However, when we convey our references and that we have a 24/7 service- assistance service that we offer to the whole world after sales, which is not even available in the largest manufacturers, we can destroy their thoughts and prejudices. The biggest problem we face in Europe is prejudices. However, in recent years, it is very pleasing to witness that each company has increased its market share with its competitive product and price policy, along with the quality solutions offered by the manufacturers in our country. As a company that participated for the first time, our priority is to observe the returns of the fair in the short and long term. Another factor is to take the right decisions in the face of global turmoil. For now, it doesn’t seem very healthy to plan for the next two years by drawing lessons from the past two years. Therefore, for the next organization, we will make evaluations involving many factors in the temporal process. Our current thoughts are definitely positive.
“We have the opportunity to introduce ourselves directly at the fairs”
Sinan Aksu / Isimek
As Isımek, we participated in the Eurobois Fair for the first time this year and it was a fair we were very pleased with. Since the first day of the fair, we came together with many visitors and talked about our products and services. Thanks to this fair, we had the chance to come together with companies that were our customers before. Most of the visitors were people who knew what they needed, which made our job much easier. Fairs are very important for us because we have the opportunity to introduce ourselves directly. We had important meetings during the fair, we think that these will return to sales after the fair. We would like to make a show of strength here with more Turkish brands in the coming years. We need to promote and explain the quality and competitive products we make to more people.
“Visitors are more professional and target oriented”
Ahmet Sahin / Elfamak
Although it was the first fair we participated in, we had a very good fair. I can say that the fair was more intense than we expected. We both reached our existing customers and gained new customers. These fairs allow people to reach us more easily. In such organizations, we have the opportunity to visually explain that we are in this region. Visitors are more professional and targeted. It was not just people who came to visit the fair. Like all companies, we have seen the advantages of this. European machinery buyers learn that Turkish companies are doing such a good job thanks to these fairs, so we will continue to take part in these and similar fairs in the coming years as Elfamak.