12% visitor growth at this year’s exhibition! More than a third of show already rebooked for 2016.
Sign & Digital UK has confirmed its status, once again, as the UK’s leading exhibition for the sign making, display solutions and digital printing industry following a mammoth show with more than 6,800 unique visitors, plus 350 who revisited the show on more than one day (awaiting audit), a 12 per cent increase on 2014’s visitor figures of 6,115.
The three-day event took place at the NEC, Birmingham from 24 to 26 March 2015 and featured a host of exclusive UK, European and world product launches, kit demonstrations, new show features and more than 35 daily seminars and workshops.
Faversham House, the event organisers said that with extensive sales and leads made across the three days, exhibitors were eager to secure their stand space for the 2016 event, with more than one third of next year’s floor space already booked up.
Rudi Blackett, portfolio director, said: “This year’s Sign & Digital UK has been excellent, with a huge range of product launches, a wealth of sales across every day of the show and high volumes of good quality visitors.”
“I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our exhibitors, visitors and supporters who have made this year’s show such a success! We look forward to seeing you all again in 2016, on the later dates of 26 to 28 April.”
Sales were strong across the three days of the show, with Jetrix making an impressive sale within the first hour on day one. Perfect Colours confirmed sales of more than 20 HP Latex 300 printers. Radecal reported a life of activity for the entire show with over 20 CNC and laser machines sold over the three days. Resolute DTG also confirmed over £100,000 and PrintMAX had sold more than 20 printers before the end of the show.
Some exhibitor comments:
GPT (Graphic Printing Technologies)
Shaun Thompson, general manager
"GPT's eighth consecutive year at Sign & Digital UK has been one of the most successful in terms of business done at the show. With lots of new machines on show for the first time in the UK from Mimaki and HP, conversations focused on the benefits to be enjoyed by these exciting new printers."
“The contacts made at Sign & Digital UK will be a real boost to our business and we look forward to seeing many of them again soon”
printMAX
Vicky Jarman, marketing manager
“Sign & Digital UK has always been a fantastic opportunity to meet customers both old and new, but also a great time to sell. This year has been no exception, with a fantastic array of customers and opportunities, plus a daily dose of sales enquiries. We look forward to the show every year and will certainly be back again in 2016.”
SMGG
Adrian Painter, director
“We have experienced unprecedented enquiry levels on stand regarding the new HP PageWide Technology. The show has been great for us. These are very exciting times for our company as we implement our HP PageWide service certification.”
i-Sub
Andy Spreag, digital director
“It’s been a great show for i-Sub and we’ve made a number of significant hardware sales off stand”.
Soyang Europe
Tim Egerton, sales manager
“Sign & Digital UK 2015 gave us the unique opportunity to launch two new products into the large format market, as well as promote our principal range of existing media. Our placement of AlumiGraphics outside the halls drove a steady stream of visitors to our stand and we’ve enjoyed a really busy and engaging show.”
Hybrid Services/Mimaki
Stuart Cole, national sales manager for industrial products
“This year our resellers have confirmed significant sales across the Mimaki range. We’ve found a lot of the visitors to our stand have been very well informed and already committed to investing. By visiting the show and seeing the products in the flesh, they’ve found it much easier to make the final investment.”
Perfect Colours
Jason Burroughs, managing director
“We’ve had a really good show, loads of people on the stand, loads of strong enquiries, lots and lots of orders of HP Latex, lots of interest in the EFI and the Jetrix printers – it’s been a fantastic show. We’ll definitely be back next year!”
Exhibitor product launches
Sign & Digital UK also confirmed its reputation as the exclusive launching pad for the latest technologies and equipment.
Hewlett-Packard gave visitors a sneak preview of HP PageWide Technology, while Roland DG offered an exclusive preview of its transfer finishing solution – the Texart CS-64 calendar press.
Hybrid Services/Mimaki showcased the UK’s first public appearance of the new Mimaki CFL-605RT Compact Flatbed Cutting Plotter. Other Mimaki launches included the CJV150 Series, CJV300 Series, and the UJF-6042 flatbed LED UV printer.
Other first time UK demonstrations included Colourgen’s new Mutoh ValueJet 426UF desktop flatbed LED UV printer and wide-format specialist CMYUK ‘s demonstration of the EFI H1625.
InkTec/Jetrix hosted the European debut of their brand new 3.2m UV roll printer, the Jetrix RX3200, alongside their newest bulk filling system.
MTEX Technologies created a UK first, showing the newly launched MTEX Vision, while Signmaster Systems launched Seiko’s next generation H Series ColorPainter, with a special demonstration from Frank Janschke, Head of Sales at Seiko.
Agfa Graphics showcased its latest addition to the i-Series, the Anapurna M3200i RTR.
Atech launched an impressive seven new products, previously unseen before in the UK, including the Bobis BLA Applicator Table, Elitron Kombo SDC digital cutter, TLS LED lighting systems, Matic Cronos Eco, Pongs Digital Textiles, Alupanel Edge Finishing for Dufaylite and Re-board and the Hollanders Textile Printer.
Soyang Europe unveiled two brand new products, including the exclusive European launch of Seal-Wise, a printable rigid substrate incorporating closed-cell technology and So-Netic, a printable and easily replaceable magnetic wall-covering.
Vivid Laminating Technologies launched its new product line, the Easymount Flow, a finishing table designed specifically to complement its market-leading Easymount Wide Format Laminating Systems.
Blackman & White showcased its new Versa Tech cutter for the first time at a UK exhibition, while Canon unveiled its two latest high-performance wide format colour printers - the Océ ColorWave 700 and the Océ ColorWave 500.
Landor UK Ltd also launched two new additions to the Landor Phototex self-adhesive fabric range, and presented several new liquid protective coatings and primers.
In the software world, Nth Degree’s stand saw considerable interest in its new prototype augmented reality app. While Shuttleworth demonstrated its new service feature “kitting” which has been designed specifically for the vehicle wrapping market.
Sign & Digital UK will return on 26 to 28 April 2016 at the NEC Birmingham. To enquire about exhibiting in 2016, please contact the show team on 0044 (0)1342 332000, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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