// Business Spotlight
MEDIA FOCUS ON SCAFFOLDING IS A FAMILY AFFAIR From small and compact to intricate and large, there’s a certain family company in the UK able to focus on their amazing scaffolding and rigging experience together, so millions can watch some of our biggest events on stage and television. Grahame Anderson has been zooming in to find out more
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ention scaffolding to anyone and it’s more than likely they’ll think of those structures placed around buildings during a construction project. There is, in fact, much more to the craft than meets the eye for the layman especially. Just picture some big sporting events, special outside broadcasts, concerts or outside meetings, and the chances are you’ll spot some kind of support rigging. And of course, all put together by highly skilled scaffolders with safety at the forefront. As a family business, Focus Rigging have been doing just that for more than 13 years slowly diversifying along the way. Managing Director Gary McMahon told me: “At Focus our team are highly experienced within the media and events industry with a combined knowledge of more than 200 years which allows us to have a refreshing and unique perspective on management, production and provisioning of temporary structure solutions to a highly demanding industry where safety, stringent time constraint and budget awareness are a priority. “We will deliver any project on time and within budget, utilising our strategically placed depots in London, Manchester and Bristol enabling us to successfully service the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe with ease.”
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Focus Rigging is an impressive business with some major clients added to an already first-class CV. These include both ITV and the BBC, Sky Sports, The Jockey Club, BT, Amazon, Matchroom, Arsenal and Chelsea football clubs, Wimbledon, The Royal Albert Hall and both The Premier League and Football Association. All of this achieved through seven family members. Owned by Gary and Andrew McMahon, they began life primarily as a TV scaffolding company – and yes, the industry plays a huge role in bringing all manner of outside broadcasts to the masses. Something we perhaps take for granted, as Gary explained: “It’s an important market and something we’re immensely proud to be involved in. In fact, we now cover staging, trussing, bespoke carpentry and various fabrications. The projects we’ve been involved with have taken us all over Europe, working in France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, Slovakia, Malta, The Czech Republic and Spain. We’ve a head office in Hemel Hempstead and two smaller teams working from yards in Bristol and Manchester. “The wonderful thing is there’s never a dull moment with plenty of variety to keep everyone fully animated. It really is a labour of love for us all. We love every moment of this job.” Focus provides a personal service to all clients, from the initial phone call to the handover of the project. It helps, of course, to always deal with the
