TOB Magazine

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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
T MG is a fortunate beneficiary of industry support for
TPC (Tobacco Plus Convenience Expo) and VEI (Va-
por Expo International), our industry trade shows
held each year in Las Vegas and Chicago, respectively. Exit
interviews from exhibitors and attendees underscore each
show’s unique commercial benefits. Consistent with our
goal to serve the tobacco industry with a broad product
platform, we are pleased to announce Tobacco Machinery
Expo (TME).
TME will debut March 15-17, 2016 at the Las Vegas Con-
vention Center. It will open just prior to TPC 2016 in an ad-
jacent exhibit space. Although it will operate independently
of TPC 2016 with its own venue, entrance, promotion, reg-
istration and website, co-registration for the two shows will
be complementary. That is, if you register for attendance at
TPC, your badge credentials will allow access to TME and
vice versa. TPC 2016 will continue its format as a two-day
show: Wednesday, March 16 and Thursday, March 17. We
have added an additional day to TME to enable TPC exhibi-
tors, a potential natural equipment TME customer base, to
attend the TME show.
Research suggests two primary machinery markets: the
traditional tobacco market and the emerging vapor behe-
moth. Traditional tobacco manufacturers possess keen in-
terest in state-of-the-art manufacturing employing today’s
technology—computerization, robotics and statistical qual-
ity control that assures increased yields without diluting
high product quality standards. Traditional tobacco market-
ers seek to tune their manufacturing operations to obtain
quality at the highest possible gross margins.
The vapor market comprised of electronic cigarettes,
disposable and refillable vapor devices, and “juices” rep-
resent a huge new machinery market potential. Today it’s
largely driven by manual assembly lines of semiskilled
workers. The market is ripe for automation, which is just
beginning to emerge within the Chinese manufacturing
community and is increasingly evident on the U.S.’s West
Coast, as offshore owners seek access to an educated la-
bor force and the legal sureties of operating within the U.S.,
today’s largest market in the world for vapor devices.
TME’s goal is to bring together today’s state-of-the-art
machinery suppliers and a combination of traditional to-
bacco and vapor market customers and prospects within
the professional environment of a business-to-business
exchange.
This letter is intended to give you an early heads-up on
TME. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, we invite you to view tobac-
.
Best to you and good selling,
TMG International Presents
the Tobacco Machinery Expo…
PUBLISHER’S LETTER BY ed o’connor