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All About ME – In-tents period of growth for marquee experts

For a PDF version of this story please click All About ME

All About ME – In-tents period of growth for marquee experts

Exciting teepee-ng point for family-run marquee and events business embarking on major seasonal jobs push

Family run marquee and events business, All About ME, is embarking on an in-tents period of growth that will see it more than double in size – in terms of the number of events it supports and people it employs – in 2016.

“We’re on the tipping point of something very special,” says Director and joint owner James Merrick, who started the business from scratch in 2012 with his fiancée Samantha whilst they were both studying Events Management degrees, along with Samantha’s father Dave and family friend Andy.

The multi award-winning tipi and marquee specialists, currently based in Ellesmere Port, have bold plans to take on the UK competition, with new premises in the pipeline and ambitions to take on around 20-25 new staff for this year’s seasonal peaks.

“The order book is stronger than it’s ever been”, added James. “So it’s critical we’re best placed to capitalise on the opportunities we have to grow right now. With the Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub by our side and directing us towards great support and advice, we’re doing just that.”

All about ME’s stunning success since 2012 has seen them outgrow their previous premises. Within the next two months they’re aiming to get the keys to a stunning new 8,500sqft location in Tarvin enabling them to house the equipment for their services and set up offices for their 12 full time staff.

The move is backed by the region’s Growth Hub, which arranged a joint taskforce with Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Business Growth Team and helped James and his fellow directors explore a range of funding opportunities. This included the Merseyside Special Investment Fund and the region’s Leader Rural Funding Programme – an application for the latter is already in process.

“Not only has the Growth Hub been a fantastic partner to us, but they’ve been able to point us in the direction of some useful advice and support, expand our networks more widely and help us explore funding options we weren’t aware even existed… the things that would have taken us months to do by ourselves or, in reality, we just wouldn’t have had time to consider”, James continues.

As part of an ambitious seasonal jobs push in 2016, the Growth Hub has put All About ME in touch with a range of groups, organisations and services to help recruit 20 to 25 new seasonal staff and enable them to explore potential hires and apprenticeships through local colleges or Chester University, as well as support available through the Department of Work and Pensions. “This help alone has saved us a massive amount of money on recruitment and has enabled us to find a much stronger pool of talent than we’ve ever had before”, James concluded.

For more information about All About ME marquees visit http://www.marqueesandevents.com.

If your business is reaching a tipi-ng point in terms of growth then find out how Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub can help you by visiting http://candwgrowthhub.co.uk.

For a PDF version of this story please click All About ME