SED 2008 closed its doors yesterday for another year. Visitor attendance was up 6.4% on last year's figures with 19,998 people through the gates (subject to ABC audit) and the second day of the show was officially the busiest in the events 42-year history.

Estimating software manufacturer Easy Price Pro were thrilled with how the show went. Sales manager David Wilkin said: "We came to the show with a fairly stiff target and we achieved that by the end of day two. It was our managing director Paul Betts birthday on day three and he feels that that was the best present we could have given him! We are also stunned at the quality of leads we received - we'll definitely be returning next year - but we will be booking two stands!"

Jeff Wright sales director of Shawtrack Services reported an excellent show: "This year's SED has been tremendous for our 'Self Drive Hire', and we have secured numerous 12-month contracts. Lots of people did not realise we offered this service and SED has really bought this to the forefront. On the Wednesday we signed up two deals for a 3.5 tonne dropside and a 3.5 tonne beavertail. The ShawWedge we launched at the show created quite a stir and we have sold a number of them already."

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Wright concluded: "We also did a deal with Isuzu at the show and signed a deal for 40 new trucks."

Haulotte secured the award for 'Best Newcomer' at the show for the company’s impressive stand. Marketing manager, Gill Gordon said: "We had a good show with a good flow of quality visitors. We sold the first 28 metre telescopic boom which we launched at the show. We are all extremely happy and very positive about returning to SED 2009."

Progressive Safety Footware made its SED debut this year. The company is the sole distributor for JCB footware which has just been launched. Neil Wright director said: "This was our first time at SED it was an excellent show and we have many very good leads - we will be back next year."

Rod Abbott, managing director of NRC Plant sold a 70 tonne lattice crawler crane to Kia Construction off stand.

JCB also reported a good show, Simon Rogers, UK and Ireland’s sales director said: "The Backhoe challenge was well attended and over the three days we had over 500 people took part in the contest, which is phenomenal. Our main stand was also very very busy – SED 2008 certainly worked well for us."

The SED will be back at Rockingham Motor Speedway in 2009 on May 12, 13 and 14.

(GK/JM)