The sixth Troy Means Business (TMB) event returned to Silverstone this spring. Bringing together suppliers and members of the growing Troy group of independent engineering distributors, TMB closed the day with a ‘Roaring 20s’ themed Gala Dinner. Torque scored an invite to the one day members-only show and later quizzed Andrea Arkless, Marketing Manager at Troy UK for a debrief and a look ahead to next year…
Can you share any statistics from the show?
‘Simply the best’ was the view from everyone who attended Troy Means Business 2017 at the iconic Wing at Silverstone. With record numbers of members and exhibiting suppliers attending the event there was an incredible amount of orders placed on the day and more enquiries than we have previously seen.
It was the second time you’d offered the Virtual Show – can you briefly explain it and how popular it was with your members?
The virtual tour is a great way for members to take full advantage of the offers on the stands they didn’t manage to see at the show and also make more considered purchases they wouldn’t necessarily want to commit to on the day. Our Suppliers fully support this important means of browsing and buying by agreeing to extend their show day offers for a further seven days. With this year’s virtual show visits and purchases vastly exceeding last years, this demonstrates its increasing value and is now very much seen as an important part of TMB.
This year’s show included Innovation Awards – who were the winners and was it a successful initiative?
Whilst there can only be one winner, the true success of this initiative is in bringing innovation to the forefront across a diversity of products and brands, which it definitely does! Of the six outstanding entries this year, from Chicago Brand, Dart, DeWalt, Just 1 Source, Metabo & Rowland Tools Ltd, the overall winner was the Cordless Mitre Saw with incredible power and battery life from Dewalt. However, the smaller products do compete incredibly well too which resulted in the judges awarding a special prize to Chicago Brand for an exceptional presentation and product which came a very close second.
This year Troy had a significant stand area at the show – what did that include and will you repeat it again next year?
We have had fantastic feedback on how great the stand looked and also for it being a great place for the Business Development Team to meet the members and discuss contracts, vendor management needs and digital marketing. As well as this, the new marketing suite was unveiled, where we had the opportunity to chat to members and suppliers about the different marketing opportunities available to both. The new Trojan Tools area of the stand also received really positive feedback, where Rob Van-Huysse was on hand to discuss products available to members via the Trojan warehouse. So yes, we will definitely be doing this again next year!
Will the show return to Silverstone in 2018 or is it too early to say?
We’re taking into consideration the feedback from members and suppliers, but early indications are very positive and it looks very likely we will return and are looking at available dates.
Any final messages for our readers and Troy members and suppliers?
We would like to say a big thank you to all Members, Suppliers, Sponsors and everyone who helped make this event another great success. We’re now looking forward to 2018!
This interview was first published in the June edition of B2B-focused Torque Magazine, covering the fastener, tool and related industries. Subscriptions are free for the industry.