Sales Engineer, Dominic Felloni visited his Italian homeland recently with a trip to SaMoter, Verona. We caught up with him to hear more about his experience and the Italian market.
As a native Italian (half!), I was more than happy to visit Verona recently and check out the SaMoTer show for the first time. It was a perfect time for me to visit as Italy is a developing region for Smiley Monroe, with many growing OEMs in sectors such as Crushing, Screening, Quarrying, Demolition, Concrete Batching & Road Construction using endless belts.
A lot of customers I spoke with left the conversation really impressed with how our ‘Endless’ Conveyor belts are produced and how we achieve consistent quality. Having a hot vulcanised joint, manufactured to DIN standards with an in-house belt testing lab, our customers are assured of a superior quality product every time. We often find specifying the correct conveyor belt for a machine can be daunting for our customers with so many options in the market. Our technical know-how and collaborative approach to conveyor design were very reassuring to potential customers in the market. Admittedly, having the local language is a huge bonus when explaining the technical aspects!
Many chats at the show focused on the OEMs’ dealer networks and growing aftermarket sales. Since some of the world’s most prestigious OEMs have been singing the praises of ZIP CLIP®, we’ve noticed a shift in the European market’s approach to mechanically fastened conveyor belts. A traditional preference towards a truly endless conveyor belt is shifting and customers are more and more receptive to the benefits of stocking ZIP CLIP® as an aftermarket product. With a fitting time of just one hour, ZIP CLIP® vastly reduces downtime and removes the cost and time constraints of a vulcanising team. Supplied ready-to-fit, it becomes like a spare tyre – safe and easy to fit off the shelf with no specialist training or tools. We were delighted with the response to ZIP CLIP® and will continue to have conversations with many of the companies post–show.
Although smaller than Bauma and ConExpo, I was hugely impressed with SaMoter, both in terms of logistics, organisation and quality of leads. The layout was great and easy to navigate through the various halls and outdoor stands/demonstrations. The location also was handy, not too far from the main hotels and transport links either so just enough time to sample some local food on my flying visit!
Ciao for now, SaMoter!
