D&M TOOLS SHOW ‘18, KEMPTON PARK RACECOURSE – REPORT BY PETER BRETT
MILWAUKEE dazzled on their stand, offering an indepth tour of their products
Having 40 years of business to celebrate, Paul chose to offer 40 top deals. Many of the most popular deals are power tools, either single tools or very popular combo packs. There were still a lot of mains powered tools in there too, such as lathes and bandsaws. Even though I have enough routers, I felt tempted by the Trend T5EB router at £99.00 – I paid more than that for my first router 25 years ago. For the pros, there’s the Trend T10EK: at £239, it’s for more experienced tradespeople and provides an open invitation to get routing with one of the UK’s top routing brands.
The Metabo SXE 450 Turbo Tec Random Orbit Sander is a trusted and reliable machine, and at around £120, it’s a bargain. Rail saws of all kinds and price points are another classic deal candidate. Somehow the temptation of a plunge saw, a couple of rails, a pair of clamps
and a carry case seems like a good way to improve the accuracy of fitting work at a very keen price.
Some winds of change
With over 10,000 visitors and record numbers of tools sold at the 2018 show, Paul says he still has to have a period of reflection and a number of debriefs with staff and suppliers before he books the venue for next year. Increase of security
The downside to big visitor numbers is there are opportunities for canny and opportunistic thieves to make off with the often very attractively displayed items. In the last three years, a number of suppliers have talked to me about theft from shows as a growing issue. Sometimes the thefts are for compact and valuable items like battery packs, but there have been cases of tools stolen quite blatantly. As a result, these issues were pivotal in Paul’s reflections on last year’s show, which
FEIN display: powertool specialists
spearheaded his decision to spend a considerable sum of money on security.
He had people patrolling the show, guards at entrances and in the car park. The latter were not only to watch out for thieves from the show, but also keeping an eye on the many visitors’
white vans – some no doubt with tools on board.
A couple of suppliers bringing in the vast amount of stock needed for this show had their vans targeted beforehand, so clearly, there is a much wider issue of security to be considered. Despite some of these downsides, in our post-show discussion, Paul still has an enormous enthusiasm and energy – not to mention lots of new ideas – for D&M Tools – The Tool Show 2019. 41 show deals maybe?
THERE were practical demonstrations and workshops for all visitors @ToolBUSINESS
TBH November, 2018 25
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