Visitors to Propak East Africa were in agreement that this year’s show was larger than previously and the opportunities to network enabled them to solidify existing and build new relationships.
Bigger is better
Several visitors commented on the size of this year’s show, with Vaughan Bradfield, sales and marketing manager of National Packaging Systems, stating: ‘I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the show and was able to achieve my objective of gaining a better understanding of which countries the East African market is interacting with in terms of equipment supply. I was easily able to meet and make some valuable contacts going forward with our planned expanded participation in both the East and West African markets. However, it was disappointing that there were not more food producers exhibiting.’
Neill Greenaway, regional sales manager: Africa at Constantia Flexibles, concurred: ‘Having attended a few of the Propak East Africa shows in the past, I was not expecting too much to be honest. These shows have traditionally been fairly small with a big local flavour. What a change! I was very impressed with the diversity of exhibitors both in origin and offering. Disappointingly there was not much representation from the big local/regional packaging players.’
Sivesh Chetty, co-owner and CTO of Bayes Dynamics, also picked the show’s diversity as his highlight. ‘I was excited to see that there several more foreign companies exhibiting, which shows that they believe Africa represents a good investment opportunity. This is very motivating.’
Brett Pollock, MD of Polyflex, agreed that the show was a great networking opportunity: ‘We gained customers, found new partners and floated some new business opportunities in India.’
Successful showcase
This year’s Propak East Africa featured 150 exhibitors from over 35 countries, with 93% stating that they met the goals set for exhibiting and 86% believing that their sales would increase as a result of taking part in the show. Ninety-four percent of the 4 622 visitors achieved their goals for attending the show, which ranged from sourcing new products or suppliers (60%) and gathering market information (31%) to networking (54%) and attending a conference session (23%), which featured 26 global experts.
