Armoury Group emphasises national presence at MIPIM
(23/03/2010)

Jim McEwan, Business Development Director at Armoury Group, one of the UK’s leading demolition and enabling works companies explains why he attended MIPIM this year.

“So another year at MIPIM, this brings my total visits to six. As a seasoned MIPIM attendee I have seen the event encounter its fair share of ups and downs. Last year, for example the event was expected to suffer due to the impact of the recession and it did. This year, the event may not also be packed to the rafters but the remaining attendees were all prepared to get down to some serious business. The emphasis has now shifted from quantity to quality, with the fluff pushed to one side to make room for quality contacts to be forged and deals to be done. I would suggest that more business has been done per attendee than in any previous year.

“So what is a Business Development Director for a specialist contractor doing here? Well for me MIPIM provides the perfect platform for developing relationships with current and potential clients, whilst allowing us to keep our finger on the pulse in terms of which regions will be most active in terms of redevelopment. This is of utmost importance to Armoury as we look to emphasise our national presence; according to participants in the event the proffered approach to achieving this would be to focus on the hubs of regional activity as a means of staking our claim nationally.

“As a business we are doing well at present. We are working on many projects paving the way for future developments in terms of conducting enabling works on site, which is an excellent indicator in terms of the potential upturn in the industry. It's great to see that our optimism is echoed at MIPIM, whether I have spoken to local law firms, national developers and architects practices the fundamental similarity between all companies in the construction lifecycle is the newly renewed positivity.

“Events like MIPIM are often questioned in times of economic uncertainty due to the time and the money initially invested. There is no question for me that the relationships forged at this event are invaluable in terms of business development and to also raise our company profile to push us towards becoming a national presence to be reckoned with.”

Opinion piece submitted by Jim McEwan, Business Development Director at Armoury Group