INTERVIEW
KB EVENT’S STUART MCPHERSON TPi’s Stew Hume speaks to KB Event Owner, Stuart McPherson about how the company is preparing for the return of live touring and the hurdles it has had to jump to provide a full European logistics solution.
When it comes to the live events industry, COVID-19 has well and truly dominated the conversation. However, in any discussion about the future of touring, the inevitable topic of Brexit eventually rears its head, and that’s exactly the reason TPi was on the phone to KB Event’s Stuart McPherson. Like many within the industry, KB has experienced an incredibly hard time, and although diversifying, regrettably many elements of the company had to be mothballed while it rode out the COVID-19 storm. Yet in the past few months, McPherson and his team began working hard to ensure they were show ready when the inevitable calls from their loyal roster of production managers started to come in. “I’m pleased to say that 80% of our team has now returned and we’re now interviewing for new positions within the company,” enthused McPherson. As well as running the company, McPherson was out on Ed Sheeran’s last stadium tour. “I got to the end of 2019 having been with Ed, while also overseeing KB’s handling of other tours such as Little Mix, Rod Stuart and BTS,” he explained. “When we got to January 2020, I was really ready for a break. Of course, looking back now, I’d give anything to be back at the tail end of 2019!” With only occasional work coming from some of the company’s longstanding clients, such as Little Mix and Niall Horan for livestreams during lockdown, when furlough looked as though it was winding down last September, McPherson had no choice but to reduce the number of staff. “We
managed to keep the core staff working but it was by no means the levels we were used to,” he said. However, as KB moved into the New Year, it began to see signs of improvement and was recently able to provide its services for the G7 summit. McPherson and KB Event have worked on these large government events since 1992, and for G7 in Cornwall he said. “We worked on that show from May to June and that certainly blew the cobwebs out!” As well as taking on some big contracts, KB has been on a recruitment drive, bringing back some familiar faces, along with looking to fill new roles needed to deal with the changing political landscape. “We’ve just brought a new team member who is heading up our EU Brexit Documentation and Carnet Department; a new division of the company to deal with the more complex admin that is now involved in logistic moves into Europe,” McPherson explained. “Historically, before 1 January, we would perhaps be producing 10 Carnets a month. Now, I predict that we’ll be doing 40 to 60 a week.” With this increased pressure, KB was keen to develop this new department and make it part of its service. KB is bringing in new blood in other areas of the business including new operations coordinators, an operations manager, along with new warehouse staff. “We’re on the lookout for more drivers,” stated McPherson. “There were a number we simply couldn’t keep on as they had no interest in doing general haulage during the COVID-19 period.” 50
