Celebrating 2017: A momentous year for Arena Group!
The history of the Arena Group stretches back more than 250 years, and along the way, many significant milestones have been achieved. However, 2017 has been, by far, the most historic year in Arena Group’s history. From our IPO in July to expanding our product range in each region, to adding iconic blue-chip events to our client list– 2017 was a standout year for Arena Group. Amongst the momentous/historical events of this year, three key developments deserve a special mention as we reflect on what has been a game-changing year for the Group.
IPO: As historic moments go, the listing of Arena Group on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange has to take pride of place. It was a significant element of the senior executive team’s vision for the future development of the Group for many years and was successfully achieved on July 25th, 2017. As a result, we now have one of, if not the, strongest balance sheet of any event rental business in the world. The IPO raised £57million, providing the capital to fuel the Group’s ambitious five-year strategic plan. The Stock Exchange listing has also raised our profile as a leading provider of event rental solutions, delivering what we refer to as ‘The Arena Standard’ wherever we are in the world. This standard is part of the Group’s core values, values that ensure we deliver to the highest standards in our industry from any one of our 14 depots spread across our three global divisions.
Contract Wins: 2017 was also a momentous year for big contract wins and new high-profile clients. In addition to our existing customers, we added numerous new and exciting events to our calendar including the UK TV channel iTV which challenged our UK division to create a temporary TV studio and ice rink to meet the unique requirements of their television show ‘Dancing on Ice’. Our US division added the US PGA Championship to its diverse roster of blue-chip events, and the Middle East/Asia division provided premium temporary solutions for the inaugural CJ Cup golf tournament in Korea.
Product offering: We continued to grow and diversify our product range in each region, launching the Well Dressed Tables brand in the US, increasing our presence in the temporary ice-rinks market in the UK, and our Middle East/Asia division added temporary seating to its offering.
Year Ahead: Now that we have the successful IPO of Arena behind us – we are looking forward to building on that momentum into 2018. Each of our three regional divisions is gearing up for another strong performance in 2018 based on our solid recurring contract base together with a number of new and exciting contracts in 2018. Our success to date has been built on the hard work and commitment of our 800-strong workforce spread across the Group’s global network and I look forward to working with everyone to make 2018 another milestone year for the Group.
