First Look: Simon Ransom, Group Director Middle East, PSAV and eclipse

FOLLOWING PSAV’S MUCH TALKED-ABOUT ACQUISITION OF ECLIPSE, SIMON RANSOM, NOW GROUP DIRECTOR MIDDLE EAST FOR PSAV, REFLECTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE COMPANY, REVEALS HOW THE DEAL CAME ABOUT AND EXPLAINS WHAT IT MEANS FOR BOTH COMPANIES MOVING FORWARD.

eclipse was set up by Mark Brown in 2003. I worked with Mark and eclipse as a vendor on various projects throughout the Middle East over the years and eventually, in 2010, he convinced me to join the team. The main objective at that time was to help Mark structure the business so that he could eventually put the company up for sale.

An ambitous five-year plan was put in place and, after growing the management team with the addition of Martin Lubach as the GM of the core eclipse Staging Services business, the definition and implementation of structured policies and procedures for the business operations contributed to moving the plan forward.

The objectives of that plan were fulfilled within three years and, as Mark was having so much fun, the selling of the business became less of a priority for him. Instead, he decided to continue growing the business; setting up eclipse Venue Services with Sacha Morazain as the GM, making some strategic acquisitions and generally investing to grow the business even further.

The company grew very quickly thanks to the capable team that Mark assembled around him and the skills and professionalism that each of them brought to the party. Strategic investment in central functions such as finance, HR, HSE, IT and marketing all lead to leaps forward in efficiencies as leaders in each area were added to the core team and they too then contributed to the growth of the company as a whole.

Then, in November 2016, unfortunately Mark was diagnosed with cancer, and just 22 days later, he passed away. From a corporate point of view, not much changed – the company was already structured in such a way that his sudden passing didn’t pose many problems, but obviously it was a massive shock to the system. Mark was an absolutely massive part of the business – he built it from scratch – and his influence is still present with all of us.

Some of my discussions with Mark during his last couple of weeks with us were about the plan for eventually taking the business to a sale. The process was all about finding the right buyer, at the right time and the right price. That time was not immediately after Mark passed; the best thing for the business at that point was to stabilise. The management team kept everybody together and we helped people understand that although this was a big loss to us personally and for the business, it was not the end of the business.

A year after Mark’s passing, supported by the senior mangement, I started the process of finding the right buyer. This was far from simple and we went through multiple iterations of this process. We got close to selling twice, and for various reasons – whether it was because the price wasn’t quite right, or we didn’t feel it was the right fit – the deal didn’t happen. In fact, the first time it felt that everything was 100% correct was when the conversation with PSAV started in early 2019. This eventually led to the deal, which was finally signed on 6 November, 2019.

The interesting thing about the process is that, from day one, there was a big overlap in the values that we carry as businesses and in the way we deal with our people – both very important elements of what eclipse has always been about. eclipse is a family of 150 people; PSAV is a family of around 14,000. So, we’re part of a much bigger family now and, from everything I’ve seen and understood, we share the same core values, which makes integration simple.

What is important to note is that eclipse is eclipse, and we continue to operate in exactly the same way that we did before the acquisition. Similarly, PSAV UAE remains PSAV UAE; the only difference being that the PSAV UAE team will now report into our venue services structure, but it remains PSAV UAE as a brand.

In terms of servicing our clients, again, nothing changes. Our venue services teams will continue to deliver in our hotels as, for the foreseeable future, we continue running as two separate brands. If you look at previous PSAV acquisitions around the world, such as most recently Encore Event Technologies, and in previous years, KFP, Hawthorn and AVC Live, it’s clear that the company has been looking for businesses like eclipse; businesses that have both a venue services and a production component.

PSAV has a clear vision of expanding its production business worldwide, and eclipse fits into that strategy perfectly. The acquisition brings opportunities not only for everyone in the eclipse family, but also for the business as a whole – we can now grow the business in a different way. Up until now we’ve been reliant purely on the cashflow that we generated to grow the business – since Mark’s passing there had been no external investment and, in a challenging market, that can be tough to sustain. We now find ourselves in a place where we have an owner that has access to resources that we simply didn’t have previously.

We’re certainly not planning on standing still. We are now the largest hotel AV venue services provider in the Middle East. We’re in 38 venues and expecting to be in another four to six within the next six months.

We’re also growing the staging services business with our expansion into Saudi Arabia. This expansion was already underway before the acquisition and being driven forward by Martin Lubach as primarily a Staging Services operation, but now with PSAV behind us, we have a different view on how to take advantage of what is going on in the Kingdom. We’re still looking at all of the available options, but we may well see some significant investment in that area to expand our business faster.

There’s already a multimillion-dollar investment in equipment that is specifically for Saudi Arabia, and we have also positioned some of our assets from Dubai into the Riyadh operation. The really good thing is that there is plenty of work to go around. The Staging Services team delivered several significant projects over there in 2019 and we’re already looking at projects for early this year. We’re going for quality instead of quantity.

With that being said, the team haven’t taken their eye off the ball when it comes to our UAE customers. With so many local vendors concentrating on what’s going on in Saudi Arabia, the opportunities in the UAE market are very interesting at the moment. Historically, the UAE has been the launching point for everything that’s happened in the region and it’s still a massive market for us. We’re now positioned in 15 of the top 16 hotels in Dubai and, with Expo coming up, 2020 is going to be an extremely busy year.

Looking to the future, education is incredibly important to us. It was a very big thing for Mark and it remains very important for us. Over the years, we’ve had many interns come through the eclipse doors and we’re incredibly proud of what they have gone on to achieve. Bringing through the next generation of technicians, engineers, lighting designers – whatever discipline they choose to follow – is incredibly important to us. We need to attract more people to join our industry. It’s a constant evolution of getting youngsters involved and excited at what we do.

Photos: eclipse

www.eclipse.ae

www.psav.com