COMPANY UPDATE

Inspire Furniture directors from left, Graham Weakley, creative director; Chad Botha and Alastair Laing, co-founders, look to new horizons.

Inspire Furniture – thinking out the box

Inspire Furniture, like many other events, exhibition and tourism companies, has had to be very strategic to sustain the business model and to ensure that they will be able to supply the industry once it returns to normal.

Inspire Furniture has been a market leader in the furniture rental business since it was established in 2014 in Chad’s garage in Edenvale. The company grew significantly through innovation, networking and ensuring they were able to meet the industry’s requirements.

Irene Costa, editor of Business Events Africa met with the Inspire Furniture co-founders Chad Botha, Alastair Laing and Graham Weakley, who only joined the group recently and is the co-founder of Prop Stars one of the oldest and most well-known prop supply companies in South Africa Graham is currently working as the creative director for the group and the three of them offered some insight into their strategy going forward.

The company’s objective is to be the most sought after one stop specialist furniture and prop rental company in Southern Africa, offering the largest variety of furniture and props, and through development of systems and operations offer the most efficient service in the industry.

The primary traditional market being events and exhibitions, road shows, activations, and general functions. The strategy is to grow the wedding and prop business to supply the film industry, both which have immense potential for growth and to expand into long term furniture rentals and the house staging market.

Chad mentioned the priority was to work together with everyone in the supply chain. “We continuously communicated with the landlord and supplier. The landlords were the key to

ensuring long-term sustainability. It is all about approach and understanding that just about everyone has lost money and many their livelihood, and that we were not the only company affected.

“We have collaborated with many other companies that suffered losses through Covid and pooled our resources to try and assist each other where possible. One such company being Prop Stars who merged the brand into Inspire.”

Alastair mentioned finding the right partners was important and this has always been a critical success factor for Inspire, one such partner has to be Prop Stars.

“There is a lot of common ground, with Prop Stars who in the past, not only supplied props to the film industry but offered a variety of funky, retro furniture which Inspire did not

have. Graham with his designer flair, contacts, and knowledge of the film industry will provide a major contribution to the Inspire group.”

Chad added: “This was a really easy connection. We have lots of space and a wide variety of furniture. Prop Stars creates sets and requires props and furniture, so in collaborating, we are able to tap into a growing market and offer much more than before. We have built a film studio at our premises in Wynberg and intend to create a filming hub for the industry, to be used for advertisements, music videos, film sets, YouTube videos and we have many ideas in the pipeline to expand on this. We are able to offer various Studio Packages which include the use of the furniture in the warehouse as part of the package, so people will be spoilt for choice whilst filming.”

Graham confirmed that the deal just makes sense. “By combining our resources, we are able to provide a new integrated service, diversify and expand our operations.”

Another such partner is Unlimited Events Group. Unlimited is part of the Inspire Group but still independent, it has been an integral part of Inspire’s growth from its inception.

Alastair stated: “We have been in constant communication with suppliers and creditors to find a way forward.”

Chad raised the point that the tourism and hospitality industry were the hardest hit with Covid and the lack of a quick response from the government has put a lot of company’s livelihoods in jeopardy. His priority has always been the staff who are the backbone of any company. “TERS has been my biggest stress ever, it has been extremely frustrating and the lack of communication from government has been disappointing. However, despite this we have found a way to wade through the storm,” he said. Chad’s approach has always been, “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Alastair seconded this, he said: “Overall government has made promises over this period and not kept to many of them, so we have had to find a way to ensure we can rely on ourselves to go forward.”

“When it comes to regulations, our sector has always excelled with the necessary guidelines and the pandemic made no difference, the sector heeded the call and set up new safety and health guidelines from the beginning, with no avail. This has been the most frustrating, not being able to operate.”

With regulations easing, it is important for all of us in the industry to manage the expectations of our clients as it will take a while to recover from this Covid hangover. Organisers of events need to act responsibly and mitigate as much as possible the probability of recurrent waves. Inspire has worked hard to survive during this pandemic, as have all other suppliers. In total, the Group employs around 270 people.

Chad said: “I believe government’s focus has been on supporting SMMEs – which unfortunately does not come close to a large operation’s far-reaching economic benefits from employment to generating substantial income that supports the local GDP.” Furthermore, he believes it is a total misconception that only SMMES need assistance.

All three agreed that they are a small part of an incredible industry which is vibrant, exciting, and continually challenging. The industry has some great people who we believe are some of the most resourceful, hardworking and resolute individuals.”

“We are constantly exploring ways to generate revenue, grow through collaboration and resources and we are currently speaking to various individuals and companies within and out of the industry to secure opportunities that are available,” Chad said.

Inspire has recently entered a partnership with a venue, east of Pretoria, formerly The Barnyard at the Parkview Centre in Pretoria. Chad said: “It is a multi-purpose

venue, which has the ability to easily adapt to the different levels of lock down and all Covid-19 requirements by offering five different areas, each divided with their own separate entrance and an outdoor area.”

The venue is named Metropolis, with the plan to go national should the demand arise. “This venue has excellent facilities and sound and will be utilised for conferences and events,” Graham added.

Chad said: “Inspire has also entered into a shared joint venture with Reed Venue Management with the focus being retractable bleaches and grandstands that were used previously at the Dome. We are exploring ways of utilising these for events. Inspire has the experience to manage off-site logistics and Reed own the bleaches, which they would have either sold or tried to use to generate revenue.”

In conclusion, Chad’s philosophy is: ‘unity is strength’ and it must be a win-win for all parties. “Our industry is in crisis, but that did not stop us from continually finding solutions, adapting, researching opportunities and finding new partners,” he concluded.