Feature
Andrew Manby
the second half of the year,
delivers; ensuring businesses
can showcase their services,
visitors can be inspired, and
more memorable moments
are created. We remain
optimistic about the future
but recognise that we will
need to come together
as an industry and work
collectively to ensure we
come back even stronger.”
Andrew Manby, MD, Joe
Manby Limited.
What we do know for sure
is the longer the current
situation continues then the
more difficult it will be for
us all! Critically, we must
have continued government
support, both in the access
to and effectiveness of the
various loan schemes, the
Job Retention Scheme and
the plans currently in place
to assist the self-employed.
Any early withdrawal of
funding, difficulty of access,
or significant reductions
in the current levels of
government assistance, will
be a major game changer!
“Assuming therefore that
events are operational, and
the Nightingale Hospitals
have all been removed by the
end of Q3, venues will be at
the start of a busy autumn
season with their previously
contracted business. Again,
Dan Watkins
assuming that all these
events have survived in some
format, what capacity will
they have to accommodate
rescheduled shows? The first
question therefore concerns
the availability of tenancy
options.
“Whilst we have a few
client events that have
secured venue dates later in
the year, it would seem that
this has not been an easy
process. One or two are still
looking at this option, but
by far the majority of our
annual and biannual events
have now simply cancelled
this year’s show(s) and are
focusing on how they best
deliver in 2021.
“You’ll appreciate that
we’ve no understanding of
how other suppliers react in
the same situation, nor do we
have a full understanding of
what the industry’s capacity
is at any given time.
“Certainly, if we were to
see large staff redundancies,
the self-employed not
returning to the industry
or, even a few, key service
suppliers cease trading as a
consequence of a protracted
layoff, it would have to raise
some serious questions
around our industry’s ability
to support what we all hope
will be a resurging market.
That is why continued
Rob Brackstone
government support, which
may in the end need to be
specific to our sector, is so
absolutely vital. It may also
prove to be the greatest
challenge! The potential
skills shortage has been an
issue way before we’d heard
of coronavirus. Certainly,
our current predicament
focuses the mind and it may
well exacerbate the situation.
Dan Watkins, sales director,
Dzine International
Furniture Hire
With rapidly declining
furniture hire orders and
concerns over staff safety
we have temporarily closed
our doors. Many of the
exhibition and event supply-
chain haven’t been able to
access any funding and have
already gone under and many
more won’t survive if this
situation continues.
“We do feel very strongly
that there should be extra
consideration from the
government to support our
industry beyond many others
as any large gatherings for
conferences and exhibitions
will be the last to resume
any kind of normality. Also
economic pressures on the
end corporate clients will
also have an impact on the
timing of overall demand.”
I don’t feel that the
industry has had the
recognition it deserves;
we have been the first to
experience the devastation
and will be the last to
recover. Either way, fast
point-of-care testing is key
short-term and will help
unlock economies around
the world until treatments
and vaccines are validated
and manufactured.
Fortunately, Dzine is in a
strong position. Before the
virus hit, we had invested
heavily in our infrastructure
including new product
lines, vehicles and our
manufacturing facility. We
are very used to peaks and
troughs that this industry
brings sometimes fluctuating
by 300%, so we are feeling
confident if demand
increases rapidly that we can
deliver quality furniture hire
wherever it’s required. Many
of our clients and large-scale
events are poised and ready
to place furniture orders as
soon as they are able. We
remain positive yet realistic
that life as we know it won’t
be the same again.”
Rob Brackstone, MD, ESM
“In our case we employ a
strong permanent workforce
of tradespeople who are
currently furloughed
in their entirety, with
decades of experience in
the high-quality design and
manufacture of exhibition
solutions. If furlough ends
with no hope in sight of
domestic events resuming,
and whilst our major venues
remain field hospitals, we
will inevitably see the mass
redundancies that furlough
was intended to prevent with
those skills perhaps
May — 35