A personal comment by Publisher Robert Aplin

The leaked news late Thursday that SED has closed came as no great surprise. By Friday morning, the announcement was official and the phone lines and e-mail were buzzing. However, of the dozens of former exhibitors and visitors that I spoke to, not one mourned for this once pivotal exhibition.

In its glory years, SED, or Site Equipment Demonstration to give it its full title, was, probably, the most important event of the year in the construction equipment calendar. Launched in England’s glory year of 1966, upwards of 20,000 visitors swarmed into its various locations over the decades in Hatfield, Whipsnade and Milton Keynes.

It was the fateful move to Rockingham in Corby in 2006 that started SED’s downfall. With a location too far removed from the main motorway links, and faced with massive traffic delays in that first year, SED never got on track at Rockingham. Staggeringly, SED made a 15 year commitment to Rockingham, and, apparently, backed that up with an investment in infrastructure of many millions of pounds. Many exhibitors and visitors, however, never forgot the first year problems and did not return. SED’s fall from grace was speedy after that, culminating in 12,000 visitors in 2009 and the postponement of this year’s exhibition. Following that, the organisers were always facing a losing battle to hold the event next year.

In announcing the closure of SED, owners Reed Business Information blamed the continuing recession in construction. This is obviously part of the story, but Reed’s management must shoulder much of the blame. It beggars belief that an industry institution can go from hero to zero in four years. Having closed its weekly construction publication, Contract Journal last December after 130 years, followed by Plant Managers Journal earlier this year, Reed has now also closed its other plant magazine SEM and now exits the construction market with its head held very low indeed.