During these exceptional times it is more important than ever to stay in touch, stay close and keep communicating with our partners, clients and endusers. How are they doing? How do they manage this crisis? What do they expect for the (near) future?
In this first episode of ‘Sounds from the Industry’ we talked to James Mason from IPS in the United Kingdom and Thomas Hansen from Zaimo in Denmark. Both the UK and Denmark have their own approach to overcome this pandamic, both with a large support package for the event industry after a tough battle in the political landscape.
Since the start in 2003, Zaimo invested in its own site material to reduce reliability risk and be more flexible to the promoters. In 2015, Zaimo bought an SR40 saddle roof which was their first Eurotruss stage construction. This gave Zaimo a firm footprint in the Danish Outdoor Event Business. The strong connection, technical support, and relationship with the Eurotruss team allowed them to offer turn-key solutions for stages. Zaimo handles the entire logistics, setup, technical requirements, and stage management.
In 2018 an investment in a bigger and stronger roof the Eurotruss PR10 was made. The PR10 has a UDL (Uniformly Distributed Load) of +50.000kg and became the leading roof in Denmark. The DNA of Zaimo is craftsmanship, good service, and top quality product for a fair price which has made them a leading stage builder in Denmark. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there business dropped by 95% and unfortunately, until today it did not improve. Savings and small government support together with a friendly bank gets Zaimo through without compromising core strength. The Calendar for 2021 is full and as soon as the COVID-19 is under control Zaimo will be right back on it.
Together with Eurotruss we focus on 2021 and ready for a great return, says Thomas Hansen, founder and CEO of Zaimo.
For more information
Zaimo Aps
Søgårdsvej 14
DK 6240 Løgumkloster
CVR. 27354424
thomaspeterhansen@gmail.com
+45 31 33 31 60
IPS was formed 20 Years ago by Managing Director James Mason. The company originally supplied lighting and sound equipment for theatres and corporate events before expanding into offering staging hire which then led to the purchase of the first Outdoor roof system in 2006. Continued business success and reinvestment over the years has lead IPS to currently offering more than 14 Roof Systems, with many different configuration options. Alongside the Staging & Structures side of the business, IPS has established itself as a ‘go to’ company for the Trade hire of technical equipment to other event companies all over the UK. IPS employs 34 people today and operates out of a 75,000sqft warehouse on a 3 acre site based in Milton Keynes.
As a true specialist on the Outdoor Roof Market, James moved over to Eurotruss. “The roof systems of Eurotruss and in particular do the Pitch Roofs offer , in terms of innovation, load bearing capacity, set up time the best solution and we decided that the best next step for IPS was to extend our inventory roof system with a PR15 of Eurotruss. Eurotruss offers the right support and displayed the experience and know how which encouraged us in this direction. The PR15 will be massive”
During 2020, Covid-19 has had a dramatic effect on the events industry. In March, huge amounts of work disappeared overnight, large amounts of equipment came back early off hire and the next few weeks of events were cancelled. As the Pandemic unfolded, dates for events & tours were pushed back to later in the year before eventually being cancelled.. IPS saw some summer work with stage structures and LED screens being supplied and installed for clients adding entertainment space to allow for social distancing at their venues. However it was a far cry from the normal IPS summer.
IPS has had to work very hard to keep everything running through a really tough trading year, and are deeply saddened that the workforce has had to be reduced by 20% due to redundancy. However, there are a few projects continuing, and enquiries are still coming in, and the IPS team are hopeful that we will begin to see a significant return of our work in late Spring 2021. IPS are using the current quiet time to take a look at internal operations. Also a new stock tracking system is being implemented along a brand new PR15 Roof System.
IPS MD James Mason has remained positive throughout everything so far, and is continuing to invest into the future of IPS, and the events industry, saying “No matter what has happened in the past, the demand for events has always been there. Events will be back, and they will be back in a large demand once there is a grip on the virus or a way to test large numbers and manage them onsite”heatre performance or a large festival, people always want to get out and enjoy themselves – and have some time off from their everyday life, so events will be back, and they will be back in a large demand once there is a grip on the virus or a way to test large numbers and manage them onsite”
