Gala Tent Ltd Company History
The UK first and largest supplier of marquees and pop up structures, Gala Tent Ltd, came into being when the company's founder and Managing Director, Jason Mace, was working behind the bar of his parents Working Men’s Club. The year was 1999 and Jason had a moment of inspiration when in July of that year he was phoning local companies in the yellow pages in an attempt to hire a marquee for the club's millennium celebrations.
At the time the millennium celebrations were the highest profile media event across the press and television. The tabloid papers were reporting tales of massive increases in costs for any organised event on the millennium eve - wages for staff would be £50 per hr, pubs and clubs would be charging extortionate admission fees, and beer would be £10 a pint. Every call that Jason made to local marquee companies resulted in the same answer. The onversation went something like this:-
Jason “do you have a 20ft x 10ft marquee for hire?”
Marquee Company “Is your event for the millennium?”
Jason “Yes”
Marquee Company “No we are sold out” or “No we are completely booked up” sorry!
It became clear that most people had decided to stay at home for the millennium celebrations and were planning family parties, including a lot of street parties. That day Gala Tent was born when Jason sourced a UK supplier who had just the item for which he was searching.
The Business Plan
Jason didn’t have much money to invest in setting up a business, his net worth was around £2,000, most of which was credit on a visa credit card. Using this resource he purchased a stock of basic, easy to erect gazebos from a local importer. Very quickly this was sold and doubled his investment he was now worth £4,000. Seeing the huge potential, Jason invested the entire £4,000 in more stock. He repeated this until he had reached £10,000 but at this point he had exhausted the entire UK stock. The only option left to keep this fledgling business going was for Jason to import directly from China but the investment was £23,500 and Jason had only £10,000. He struck a deal with the supplier to pay £10,000 deposit in advance, and the balance upon delivery. At this point Jason was counting on his ability to pre sell the stock and have all the money ready to pay the supplier in advance of the stock landing in the UK. Logistically things looked good, the lead time was around 8 -10 weeks and if all went well it would be just in time for the millennium.
The Marketing Plan
In the 90’s there was a real interest in free add papers, just about everyone had bought or sold items from them. It worked in the same way as online auctions do today. Because Jason had no budget for advertising a “free add” seemed to be a best and only place to start. The advertisement read something like this:
“20ft x 10ft Marquee For Sale
Ideal for Millennium Celebrations, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Bonfire, BBQ etc
comes complete with steel poles, canopy, full set of sidewalls, pegs, guild ropes
and instruction manual.
£100”
As you can see, the advertisement is not too commercial, in fact it looks more like Jason could be an individual selling a used marquee and the price is rounded up to £100. Had the ad been priced at £99.99 it would have looked much more like a commercial advertisement and received a lower level of response, not only that, the paper may have charged for carry the ad. However, he got it just right and the phone never stopped ringing. Jason then repeated this format in free ad papers across South Yorkshire, as well as taking the same style private adds in local circulation papers.
The Office
When the business started Jason’s office was a folding paste table sat in the middle of the room in his father's club. Because it was an active social club Jason had to set up his office in the morning and dismantled in the evening. On the table was a presentation of information on the marquee for sale, print offs of pictures, scanned and laminated. Jason didn’t own a digital camera at that time they were beyond most peoples pockets, neither did he own or know how to operate a computer. Fortunately, his big sister Lisa Mace, who is very creative and had a computer, agreed to print some flyers and point of sale material for his paste table. Jason’s humble set up actually made a substantial amount of money and sales conversion rates were around 98%. The club telephone number was used for incoming sales calls as free add papers didn’t allow a mobile numbers at the time, so Jason's would have a product description, along with directions to the club from the M1 and A1, printed and pinned to the wall near the phone so that if he was not working at the bar someone else could take a sales call on his behalf. In return Jason would buy them a drink by way of thanks.
The First National Marquee Mail Order Company
Initially Jason was just concentrating on local business around South Yorkshire; the majority of purchases were collections with just a few deliveries but he new that setting up a delivery service would be a huge benefit. Then, out of the blue, Jason's father Tony Mace received a phone call from Bob Picburn a life long family friend who was exhibiting Krypton Tuners at an outdoor trade show and it looked like rain! So, knowing that Jason had a little marquee business he asked Tony if Jason could deliver one on a next day service. Out came the yellow pages again to see if a local carrier would be able to offer this service. The price was quoted at around £34, Krypton agreed to pay the cost and the deal was done. The carrier collected the marquee that day and it was delivered on time the following day. And, as unpredictable as the British weather is, the heavens opened and the marquee saved the day. Jason commented at the time that he didn’t realise that such a large parcel could be delivered on a next day service to the other side of the country. Then another inspirational moment, Jason's mobile phone broke down, he called the phone company and it was duly collected, intrigued Jason started a conversation with the man from the carrier and started to learn about freight transport. They worked from hubs and central distributions, which is how they manage to produce such an amazing next day service. Jason asked the driver if he could pass his business card on to their sales department and for them to contact him about a possible contract. The next day a salesman called and arrange to meet, Jason explained the business model delivering Marquees throughout the UK on a next day service. Jason shared his sales forecast with the courier salesman so that he could quote as accurately as possible. Eventually they agreed a 30 day account and £6 per parcel delivered anywhere in the UK mainland on a next day service. Armed with this parcel rate and national presence the sales soared, and Gala Tent became the first marquee mail order company, with the mission statement “Why Hire When You Can Buy For Less” which is still used today.
Partnership
Eventually Jason had raised the money required to pay his supplier upon the delivery of the container. Business went from strength to strength and Mark Thompson - Jason Brother-in-Law, joined him to help with the increasing trade. In 2000 and with a strong database of clients and resellers it became clear that they also needed lighting, heating, flooring and furniture as well as marquees and gazebos. It was time to expand the range; so more sizes and more products were introduced. At the same time the Gala Tent business grew, the club trade declined and it made good commercial sense for Gala Tent to buy the club and convert into warehouse and offices. The property, owned by Jason’s parents Jenny and Tony Mace was valued at £150,000 and had an outstanding business loan on the property of £80,000, the remaining funds after legal costs and bank charges were around £67,000. In order to seal this deal, Jenny and Tony became Jason & Marks “Dragon” investors and the remaining monies were ploughed back in to the company.
Online Presence
In 2000 Gala Tent needed an online presence to extend its reach and support its sales efforts and this led to the recruitment of computer whiz kid Steve Biggs. Steve created a completely unique online shop and back office system with which to run the company, all of the work was bespoke because it was not possible to buy an off the shelf software package that was capable of running the very unusual business model that had been created. With Steve on board Gala Tent became pioneers of online trading and it was one of the very first businesses in the north to have a fully transactional ecommerce website. Steve’s background was design, technical drawing and computer programming and capitalising on his skills, the Gala Tent product range evolved quickly, responding to client feedback and making them the most practical and user friendly structures in today’s market.
Creating a New Business Concept
Credit card payments were available at this time and online trade was growing, however, Jason spotted an untapped market for marquee hire. Not wanting to hire them himself Jason calculated that it was possible to start a business hiring the steel pole entry level Gala Tents with little investment and a quick return. The critical factor was finance, Jason was highly aware that cash flow was an issue for any business start up and so he created a way around the problem. The advertising campaign went something like this:
“Start Your Own Marquee Hire Business” Buy Now Pay Nothing for 12 months.
Think about it, you buy your stock of marquees, rent them out over the next 12 months make all your money back then pay for them, win – win. And it worked! Gala Tent helped to create dozens more business all over Britain and a handful overseas.
The First eBay Shop
Out of the blue one day Jason received a phone call from someone at the fledgling UK side of the US online auction company eBay. They asked if they could make an appointment to meet Jason and to discuss business, specifically the launch of eBay shops in the UK. The meeting went well, Gala Tent was presented with the new online management system for eBay shops with an offer for Gala Tent to become the first eBay shop in the UK. Once more the deal was done. eBay even set up special categories like Marquees and Gazebos on the provision that Gala Tent would list their products. Later Jason was informed that the Gala Tent eBay Shop was to be used to launch the new shopping forum for business, which is now a worldwide success thanks to Gala Tent's original contribution. The benefit to Gala Tent was enormous, at the time it was the only company selling marquees and gazebos on eBay worldwide and this brought a lot of overseas business especially from the USA.