The Year of the Fiber Laser
JMT in 2013: The Year in Review
By Ken Bartelli
JMT National Sales Manager
From Obamacare to twerking to zombies on big screen and small, 2013 will be remembered for many things. Here at JMT, however, we will look back on this as the Year of the Fiber Laser.
JMT introduced the JMT fiber laser to the U.S. market in the summer of 2013. We introduced the Eco fiber laser series that features 500 watt, 1 kW and 2 kW models with a 5′ x 10′ table and the NF Pro series with capacities up to 5 kW and table sizes up to 8′ x 20′. Joining our strong lineup of press brakes, plate rolls, angle rolls, shears, band saws, iron workers and other fabricating equipment, the JMT fiber laser has quickly become the product that has generated the most interest among our current and prospective customers.
While sales of other JMT lines remained strong throughout the year, we also welcomed a new line of welding accessories in 2013. JMT welding positioners, welding manipulators and tank turning rolls are filling a specific need in a niche market and sales have been very brisk. JMT also began introducing a few additional new lines of equipment in limited markets to see how they perform and some of these are poised to be rolled out to our national marketing during 2014.
The JMT family also grew in 2013 with two new salesmen along with several new service specialists, including one technician based in the eastern United States to service our east coast customers. Strategic alliances were made with several new dealers who started distributing JMT products in their areas across the U.S. in 2013.
Two big highlights of the year was our presence at an international tradeshow as well as a show we put on ourselves. JMT held its first official open house in August of 2013 at our headquarters in Salt Lake City to introduce the JMT Nukon fiber laser to the public. In addition to the exposure to our many lines of equipment that the open house gave to the customers who attended, we also conducted extensive distributor training to the many JMT dealers who attended. An added bonus was having a television news crew show up to film a piece about us and our fiber lasers that ran on the local news during the open house.
We pulled out all the stops for our appearance at the FABTECH tradeshow in November 2013, and a large number of attendees commented on the impact we made. North America’s largest metal forming and fabrication show, FABTECH 2013 broke all previous records for numbers of attendees (40,667), exhibitors (1,573), and floor space (650,000) this year at Chicago’s McCormick Place. JMT’s booth included an eye-catching suspended Plexiglas backdrop and three specially-crafted metal shipping containers that folded out into onsite office and lounge space for our guests at our booth. Heads were turned and sales made as people flocked to check out our display. We were also privileged to be invited by the management of FABTECH to present a formal presentation on fiber laser technology as a part of the show.
2013 was an exciting year for us, but it is only the beginning. We anticipate great things in 2014, 2015 and beyond as we expand our presence and our lines across the country – and we couldn’t do it without all of you, our customers, associates and friends. The new and renewed friendships we’ve made over the last year are by far our most important accomplishments. We hope you’ll come along with us and see what the future holds!
