FEBRUARY | ME, MYSELF & I
Ben Keast
A new decade sees Ben Keast take the helm at
Neptunus following the retirement of April Trasler
Interview by: Tom Hall
leaving the EU this year we will find
out what impact, if any, there will be
for our business.
The start of a new decade
brings a new chapter in
the Neptunus story as Ben
Keast takes the helm as
the temporary structure
company’s UK managing
director following the
retirement of April Trasler.
Until last year Keast
had been Neptunus’ UK
project director operating
as April’s right-hand man
There’s a number of challenges
for me going forward. First and
foremost is the fact I’ve taken over
from April Trasler who was such
an iconic figure in the temporary
structure world. I worked alongside
April for many years and we’ve built
a marvellous team at Neptunus,
I’m confident that Neptunus will
continue to go from strength to
strength in the future as we build
on the successes of previous years.
and in charge of many of
the firm’s most high-
profile assignments.
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Probably our biggest challenge
is the potential impact of Brexit
and the possible fall out of leaving
the EU. I know everyone is fed up
hearing about Brexit and all of the
debates and arguments that have
raged on over the past three and
half years. Now we know the UK is
As a Dutch-owned business, we
have our group headquarters
in The Netherlands and our
manufacturing centre in Poland,
we also have offices across Europe.
We have pan-European stock
and, though we have our own UK
headquarters and warehouse in
Northamptonshire, we do share
equipment across Europe for some
of our biggest assignments. We will
therefore naturally be monitoring
very closely if Brexit has any impact
on things like movement of our
trucks and staff between the UK
and Europe.
We will also see during 2020 if there
is any impact for the UK events and
exhibitions sector from European
businesses perhaps thinking twice
before committing to staging
functions in the UK as a result of
Brexit. These are still unknown
elements for our industry.
However despite this uncertainty,
the sector remains competitive
with some interesting innovation.
At Neptunus we continue to
develop our Evolution offering and
other variations in the range, as
well as on-going product renewal.
The industry’s calendar remains
busy with the UK’s strong number
of household events growing and
developing year on year combined
with new and exciting festivals and
events throughout the year. So, all
in all, the future looks bright.
With regard to my aspirations it
is simply to help clients to think
outside of the box and make
difficult challenges possible,
continuing to produce successful
delivery of operations with quality
products and helping to ensure our
clients’ events run smoothly and
successfully.
If I could change anything, we
would all love more time to
plan. It would be great to see
extended planning time and client
engagement. This would help us
make more use of all of our time
so we can interact through more
phone calls and face-to-face video
calling which would all help to
reduce hours spent in cars and
reduce excessive carbon emissions.