EXPO-Richmond-2021-Announcements-Recap-and-More

This year, EXPO Richmond returned after last year’s break due to the pandemic. The event was held in it’s regular location, the Richmond Raceway Complex on May 21st - May 22nd, providing ample space for attendees, exhibitors, contests, and workshops. EXPO Richmond 2021 was sponsored by the Virginia Forest Products Association & The Cooperative Extension Service at Virginia Tech. The COVID-19 precautions were expertly organized and helped drive attendance from enthusiastic attendees.  Over 200 exhibitor companies gathered with attendees; the complex offers over one-half million square feet of exhibit space, so it was easy to observe distancing guidelines. 

This year’s theme was no different from previous events - a spectacular showcase of forest products, equipment, & services for sawmills, kiln drying, harvesting, biomass, trucking, pallet/manufacturing/recycling, optimization/scanning, material handling, firewood production & related equipment, commercial equipment finance, and other forest industry supplies and services. 

Since EXPO Richmond is one of the first events of the year that our team attended since the shut-downs of last year, we reached out to a few of the exhibitors to get their perspective on the event. 

Q: How is the event going, and what’s your overall impression of the forestry and logging equipment market?

A: “We’ve been coming to Expo Richmond since we’ve been in business, but this is the first industry trade show that we’ve attended since October 2019—and it’s a great show for the first one back,” said Noah Carr, President of Lumbermen Online. ““Last spring was extremely uncertain… and unfortunately, advertising is usually the first expense to get cut. When the manufacturing plants shut down, they pulled back on their advertising. Since then, things have improved significantly and are on a positive, upward trajectory. People are looking to buy more equipment than usual right now. Used equipment is in high demand because of long manufacturing lead times, which has resulted in more business for us.”

Q: How was the turnout this year? Are you glad you made the effort to be an exhibitor? 

A: “It’s been a great show for us… people were actually waiting at our booth for us this morning! It’s a much more successful show than we thought. We weren’t sure what to expect with the gas shortages and prices in Virginia. A lot of companies didn’t show up for the event but we’re sure glad we did,” shared Kevin Weisner, Go Fast Manufacturing. “We sell very little at the tradeshows, but it’s really about the connections you make. Today’s been a bit different than previous events; however, the industry is hot, and we’re expecting a lot of orders to come in after the show.”

If you didn’t attend this year’s event, we hope you’re encouraged by those remarks to add next year’s event to your calendar! 

Here’s are the highlights from the 2021 event: 

Notable Demonstrations

Rotochopper

MC-226 Horizontal Grinder, a highly portable yet full-featured grinding solution that brings “perfect in one pass” convenience for diverse feedstocks.

Baker Products

Blue Streak™ Portable Band Sawmill 3638G, heavy-duty, portable sawmill designed to give high production with little effort. Powered with a 38-HP gasoline engine and hydraulic log controls for loading, turning, clamping, fence arms, and leveling.

Ransome Attachments

Black Splitter, a hydraulic wood splitter attachment series that has earned acclaim for its superior quality in all types of log splitting, firewood & wood fuel production, biomass harvesting, forestry, land clearing, and landscaping. 

Rayco Industries

Pallet PRO, a two operator pallet system with collated nail and pneumatic non-stop nailing. The two operator pallet system is capable of producing between 800-1200 pallets/shift. 

Smith Sawmill Service

TurboSawmill Automated Warrior swing-blade with proven swing-blade technology with electric start, power feed, allows for any diameter log.

On to EXPO Richmond 2022! 

Next year’s conference dates haven’t been announced yet, but the website https://www.exporichmond.com/ is a dedicated conference website. Check back soon for 2022 dates and registration information.  

Indoor Booths & Vendors

Beautiful, clear skies for outdoor demos