Gulfood Manufacturing: UK companies make hefty sales

IN THE first two days at Gulfood Manufacturing, UK-based T Freemantle Ltd said it had made sales of more than ￡200,000 (AED 1.5 million).

“We sold three of our small, two-flap sealing machines, a starter model for companies looking to manufacture food products, frozen foods, desserts and bakery goods, and two of our high-speed, fully-automated systems – a high-end production machine more suitable for higher volumes – to buyers from the UAE, Saudi, Qatar and Lebanon,” Richard Kitchen, CSO of T Freemantle Ltd told organisers. “We were a little concerned that Gulfood Manufacturing, as a new show, might not get the same footfall as Gulfood but the spenders were at Gulfood Manufacturing and they were there to buy machinery, in some cases right off the stand.”

As one of 38 companies participating under the UK’s Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) group, David Harrison, the PPMA’s Commercial and International Manager, said T Freemantle Limited’s sales were not the exception.

“The general feedback has been superb right from the opening; our exhibitors witnessed a record number of leads and enquiries, machinery selling straight off the stands, customers coming back to negotiate payment – the least happy person was our shipping agent as there was a lot less coming home,” said Mr Harrison. “The UK’s confidence in this show was phenomenal; we doubled the size of our group’s stand at February’s Gulfood and our companies were rewarded for it.”