Cummins to Skip Mid-America This Year; Organizers Tout Nearly 1,000 Exhibitors
Engine maker Cummins Inc., a charter exhibitor at the Mid-America Trucking Show since it started in 1972, said it, too, would skip this year’s show, now two months away, even as MATS organizers maintain it still will be very large but also very different from last year’s record-setting event.
Cummins added that it plans to return in 2017, along with other original equipment manufacturers and suppliers to the industry that have bailed out on this year’s event.
“It was important for us to show solidarity with our strategic customers [the truck makers]. Thus, Cummins will not exhibit at MATS 2016,” said Mario Sanchez-Lara, spokesman for Cummins. “We look forward to full-scale participation at MATS in 2017, with our normal dinner and press event.”
As Exhibit Management Associates, the owner-operator of MATS, finishes plans for this year, it’s also wrestling with the scope of the show in the future in view of the desires by the industry’s largest manufacturers to switch to an every-other-year format.
EMA executives are expecting 950 to 1,000 exhibitors and 70,000 visitors to the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville from March 31 to April 2, even though all seven North American heavy-duty truck makers and Cummins will not be there.
“We have several companies that have expanded their presence at MATS and many new companies with exciting technology to showcase on the show floor,” EMA President Toby Young said.
“For the majority of our attendees, MATS is the only show that they attend, so while some may choose not to attend due to certain companies not being present on a given year, most rely on MATS to stay current with the industry and inform their purchasing decisions,” Young said.
Two other industry suppliers with a longtime attachment to the show confirmed they will return this year: Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co.
“We’re going to be in our same South [Wing] booth again,” said Bendix spokeswoman Barbara Gould. Bendix makes brakes and advanced safety systems.
Utility is the nation’s largest manufacturer of refrigerated trailers and also makes dry vans. Senior Vice President Craig Bennett confirmed his family’s business would be there.
So did MAC Trailers. But Great Dane Trailers said earlier it would not attend this year, and Wabash National Corp. has not had an attachment with Mid-America in recent years.
Last year, MATS set an attendance record with 81,768 visitors. The projection of 70,000 would be a falloff of 14.4%.
The exhibitors’ roster featured 1,064 companies last year.
Decisions to withdraw from MATS began about six weeks after last year’s show, when Daimler Trucks North America CEO Martin Daum said it made more sense for Daimler Trucks to concentrate on North America in odd-numbered years and Europe’s big event, the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hanover, Germany, in even years. It has long been a biennial event.
Asked what DTNA will do in the future, spokesman David Giroux said, “We are keeping options open for 2017.”
Asked what options to MATS are currently available, Giroux said there are “no formal proposals to mention as of yet.”
Young said his firm is involved with the Kentucky Expo Center through lengthy contracts, and the current one runs through MATS 2020. While sudden, drastic changes are not possible, the nature of Mid-America can change over time, he said.
“The paths that MATS could take are essentially the biennial pattern, or remaining annual and alternating between a larger, and perhaps longer, event on the odd years and a slightly smaller event on the even years,” Young said.
“As we continue discussions with our attendees and exhibitors, these are essentially the two paths that we are considering,” he added. “A decision of this magnitude requires careful consideration. We will not make significant changes in the short term, but we are weighing both options and engaged in discussions with those who have a stake in the success of the show,” he added.
Despite the largest manufacturers pushing the biennial option, Young said that “most of our exhibiting companies would like MATS to remain annual.”
As for the layout of MATS this year, the 45th, Young said all halls and wings of Kentucky Exposition Center still will be put to use by the trucking show, except for “the southernmost portion of South Wing C.”
Last year’s Mid-America used all 1 million interior square feet and 200,000 square feet outdoors. This year’s show will use more than 1 million square feet, Young said.
