“IWF has been a key sales and lead generating show for us,” said Anthony Sutton of Mereen-Johnson. “Losing it is a blow. However, to compensate we will be stepping up our regular sales and marketing efforts. More social media, emails, and internet, as well as even more sales calls.

“We are looking at doing virtual demos and other online sales promotions to give customers the ability to see our machines in action.”

Sutton said Mereen-Johnson is expanding its dovetail line and was planning to again feature them at IWF, including their new single spindle dovetailer. The company is best known for its rip saws and rip optimizing systems, and they were going to have both their Rip Navigator Scout and Rip Navigator Tracker systems doing live demos. They were also going to feature their new Diehl Machines division at the show. Their acquisition of Diehl fits well with their overall saw line.

“We have indeed fielded many calls from customers looking to use this time to do long deferred maintenance as well as rethink their production model. However, most of our customers are as busy as ever, and as a result, we have been as well,” Sutton said.