Category Archives: Company News

COVID19 Cleanliness & Hygiene Recognised

This month our dish and glass washers have undergone a COVID19 service check and we’re delighted to have our certificate of cleanliness & hygiene from Winterhalter UK.

We’re continuing to work safely and deliver/collect safely.

Contact us on 020 8545 6000 if there is anything we can help with.

#worksafely #covid19safe #workingtogethertostayapart #bettertogether #eventsindustry #wemakeevents #cleanliness #hygiene

Beat Heartbreak Forever

Well Dressed Tables are proud to be supporting lifesaving research and helping to protect those you love by donating furniture and other homewares to The British Heart Foundation.

So far £3,000 has been raised in the last few weeks from our donations.

There are many other ways in which you can support The British Heart Foundation. Help Beat Heartbreak Forever and click here to find out how you can support. The BHF is committed to fundraising in an honest and transparent way. They are not funded by the government and rely completely on the generosity of their supporters to fund their life saving research.

They can only do this with our help and your help. Their researchers will find the breakthroughs that beat the heartbreak these conditions cause.

Be a supporter. Together, we will be heartbreak forever.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/

Well Dressed Tables Shortlisted for Festival Supplier Awards 2020

Well Dressed Tables are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted for the prestigious Festival Supplier Awards 2020. We have been shortlisted in the Best backstage / VIP Supplier award category, for our work on Reading, Leeds, Latitude and Wireless Festivals.

The Festival Supplier Awards are now in their sixth year and were developed to recognise, reward and promote best practise in the outdoor event and festival sector.

Michelle Tayton, event director of the Festival Supplier Awards comments: “The quality of our shortlisted suppliers is outstanding, a welcome reminder of the excellence and professionalism that exists within the outdoor event and festival industry. We’re delighted that Well Dressed Tables has been recognised for its pursuit of excellence, given the tough competition in its field.”

With a focus on delivery, customer service and sustainable initiatives, the awards are judged by an esteemed panel of high profile industry experts. These include: Ben Robinson, From the Fields; Jon Hogan, Coventry City Council; Emma Reynolds Taylor, Library Productions; Suzy Griffiths, IMG; Alasdair Fowle, Co-op; Beckie Parsons, Judgeday; Harry Guthrie, HGEP; Ben Hardy, Richmond Event Management; Emily Muirhead, Vision Nine; Denis Dooley, New Forest Show; Frankie Tee, Enteetainment; Neil Levene, Brand Events; Becky Gundry, Festival Republic; Chris Johnson, Powerful thinking; Jon Drape, Engine No 4; Susan Lees, Culture Liverpool and Craig Greaves, CSG Events.

The award ceremony and gala dinner is eagerly anticipated and will be held at the Hurlingham Club on Thursday 30th January 2020.

Well Dressed Tables Introduces New Partnership

ARENA GROUP CATERING EQUIPMENT DIVISION, WELL DRESSED TABLES, CONFIRMED AS LONDON OPERATIONS PARTNER FOR CUPCLUBTM

Well Dressed Tables (WDT), the leading catering equipment hire company part of Arena Group, has signed a two year contract to provide operational services for London-based startup CupClub™, an innovative returnable packaging service for drinks.

CupClub™ offers a returnable packaging service with a tailored end-to-end service helping to eliminate single-use plastic packaging. The startup was recognised earlier this year by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in its Circular Design Challenge awards, and already has some large customers including John Lewis Partnership.

In early 2018, the startup approached WDT looking for a logistics partner to service their customers. Well Dressed Tables assisted with the development of operational services thanks to their extensive experience in the catering equipment hire industry, their industrial size facility, and capabilities.

This new venture with CupClub™ forms part of Arena Group’s wider focus on sustainability across the entire global organisation, and opens the company up to new opportunities in the corporate sphere. Arena’s involvement in this revolutionary concept is an important message to the wider events industry to use their capabilities to lead change within as well as outside of the events sector.

Chris Piggott, Managing Director of Well Dressed Tables comments:

“We are really proud to be working with Safia and her team on such a trailblazing initiative! We have the experience, capacity, and capabilities to provide a truly seamless operations service for them, providing the collection, washing, and return service.”

WDT, part of Arena Group, is one of the largest catering equipment hire companies in the UK, with the facilities and capacity to service 30 million cups a year. Some of their clients include major events like Cheltenham Festival, Wimbledon, ATP Tennis Finals, and Glastonbury.

ABOUT CUPCLUB

CupClub™ is an innovative returnable packaging service for drinks that utilizes RFID technology and cloud-based IoT software to provide complete supply chain traceability, helping retailers reduce single-use plastic packaging through trackable products and an in-built loyalty scheme.

Visit www.cupclub.com for more information.

Well Dressed Tables Receives Altius Assured Accreditation

Well Dressed Tables are delighted to announce we have recently received the Altius Assured Accreditation.

When Altius are engaged by a client to work on their behalf it is with the peace of mind that suppliers will be supported, to ensure they are capable and competent to work safely and comply with regulation changes, best practise and client specific requirements and policy. Unlike other schemes, clients can tailor assessments to their requirements and Altius will on-board and assist their suppliers throughout the year to ensure they are always fully compliant.

This highly respected accreditation continues to demonstrate assurance to our new and existing customers. The Altius Network of suppliers has grown significantly over recent years to become one of the leading and innovative accreditation schemes in the country.

Find out more about Altius here.

Our Fresh Approach To Brexit

With news that the government is considering stocking up on processed foods ‘just in case’ we crash out, we’re ready with over 200 cold rooms and dry stores available to hire with minimal notice to help you keep foods fresh and stored in the appropriate environment.

In the UK we only produce about half of what we eat and around 40% of our fresh produce comes from the EU. Key facts we may never have realised before now. Stockpiling may be the only sensible thing left to do!

The food industry including our contract caterers, event caterers and our favourite retailers are highly dependent on high quality European produce so don’t let your consumers be without their favourite spices, fresh fruit and veg, olive oils and more, the list is endless along with key medical supplies. It’s not just our retailers and favourite foodie establishments, it’s our pharmaceuticals too. Anything that puts a barrier in the flow of the distribution, could potentially increase costs and reduce the freshness of our much loved fresh produce. The vast amount of produce we bring into the UK requires temperature controlled storage.

With the impact of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit looming, why not be prepared with a contingency plan with a simple storage solution such as a temporary cold room or dry store, available for short term and long term hires. We have a 24 hour emergency call out team available and have multiple depots to service the UK’s requirements often within a matter of hours. Our largest cold rooms and dry stores can hold up to 30 pallets.

 

Don’t have a meltdown, contact us today to discuss our cold store solutions. You can reach us on 020 8545 6000 or drop us a line at sales@welldressedtables.co.uk

 

Arena Acquires Bash Bars Ltd

We are delighted to announce that Arena Group PLC has acquired specialist modular bar supplier Bash Bars Ltd, continuing our mission to improve our offering to you. The company’s stock will relocate the short distance to our Wimbledon facility in the next 6 weeks.

 

Bash Bars will operate alongside Well Dressed Tables and Spaceworks, creating a stronger furniture division with a wider product range, extended staff skill set and a diverse client base in new sectors.

 

Bash Bars is a respected brand with over 15 years delivering bar solutions to events ranging from private society functions to major sporting events not limited to but including Goodwood Festival of Speed, Wimbledon to name a few.

 

We are committed to continue investing, in order to offer you a constantly improving service and specialist assets for your events by creating memorable environments. We thank you for your support to this point and hope we can continue to work with you long into the future.

 

 

Arena Acquires Ice House Rentals Ltd

The largest UK event supplier, Arena, expands its product portfolio with the acquisition of specialist cold room business, Ice House Rentals Ltd.

Event supplier, Arena, has bought long-established providers of temporary cold rooms, Ice House Rentals Ltd. This latest acquisition will see the cold room specialist company be integrated into Arena’s current furniture and tableware business, Well Dressed Tables.

 

Arena UK & Europe CEO, Grahame Muir, states:

“Much like our recent acquisition of furniture specialist hire company, GLD, the acquisition of Ice House Rentals Ltd is set to significantly strengthen our offering to existing clients as well as attracting new clients to Arena’s services. Ice House Rentals Ltd has in excess of 215 cold rooms and like Arena has supplied some of the most prestigious events, such as their work in supplying over 90 cold rooms to Royal Ascot. As a leader in the events market, we hope this acquisition will further solidify Arena’s position as the business that can provide the highest quality turnkey service to those who choose to use us.”

Christopher Piggott, Managing Director of Well Dressed Tables, explains:

“This is a fantastic acquisition for the division. The ethos of quality, service and reliability, which is driven by the directors of Ice House Rentals Ltd, complements the values and standards of Arena. For Well Dressed Tables, as a division, this develops the portfolio of products that we can now offer our clients, making us truly a ‘one stop’ supplier.”

Ice House Rentals Ltd will continue to be based at its Hook facility, in Hampshire.

Tom Scott, Ice House Rentals Ltd Managing Director states:

“Joining Arena provides us with a real sense of pride.  To become part of a public company is a validation of the work we have done, providing security of supply for our clients well into the next decade. We look forward to growing our business within the Arena umbrella.”

Well Dressed Tables win Foodbuy Conference Award

Well Dressed Tables received ‘Implementation’ award at the Foodbuy Conference and Awards 2018, held at London’s ExCel Exhibition Centre.

 

This was the first formal award Well Dressed Tables has received, although the company has contributed to award winning projects with their parent company, Arena Group. Well Dressed Tables are known in the industry for their work with some of Britain’s most successful PLCs, blue chip companies and exclusive events. Hiring out 21 million items each year and delivering on 9000 contracts is no mean feat and the Foodbuy Conference Award for ‘Implementation’ recognises some of this work.

Foodbuy is a leading food procurement organisation based in the UK and proudly part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, who are its parent company and largest client. The Foodbuy Conference and Awards provided an opportunity for Foodbuy to recognise and celebrate the excellent contribution its suppliers have made to the business in the previous year.

As part of Well Dressed Table’s partnership with Foodbuy, Well Dressed Tables delivered catering equipment and event furniture to some of the UK’s biggest sporting events during 2017, through Levy UK, Compass’ sports and leisure catering specialist.

Well Dressed Tables were also commended for their ability to develop relationships with key stakeholders, including chefs and catering managers, resulting in the team fully understanding the ever-changing needs of customers.

Chris Smith, Racing Operations Manager South West of Jockey Club Catering, said: “The service delivery from the Sales & Marketing Director and her team is second to none, and the on the ground support from the operations teams has been faultless since we first started working with them.”

Chris Piggott, Managing Director of Well Dressed Tables said: “We’re delighted to be recognised at the Foodbuy Conference Awards 2018. Our team work very hard to ensure our contracts are implemented effectively and do this with exceptionally high standards of customer service in the process. We’re confident it’s what sets us apart from our competitors and to see that more formally acknowledged by this award is testament to the team’s hard work and shared ethos.”

 

 

Arena Group expands portfolio with acquisition of GLD Productions

Arena Group has expanded its product portfolio with the acquisition of specialist furniture hire business GLD Productions.

The largest UK owned event production supplier, Arena, has bought GLD Productions Ltd with all stock and staff being incorporated into the Group’s Spaceworks Furniture Hire division.

Grahame Muir, CEO Arena Group UK & Europe, said: “Since our 2017 stock market flotation we have been looking to strengthen our offering to clients, which this acquisition certainly will. The addition of new products, a very experienced and talented team will all help deliver the growth we believe is possible within this sector.

“Our ability to continue supporting the live music sector remains a very important cornerstone of this business unit going forward.  We are delighted with this outcome and the opportunity to widen our offering within the live events marketplace.”

GLD’s staff and stock will be located at Arena’s Membury facility, complimenting and bolstering the capability of Spacework’s Furniture Hire within the Group under Managing Director, Chris Piggott. Dave Withey, Arena UK & Europe Sales Director, will assist in the development of GLD’s music and touring business.

Graeme Dixon, GLD Managing Director states:

“We are delighted to join the Arena Group.  To become part of a public company is a validation of the work we have done, providing security of supply for our clients well into the next decade and we look forward to growing our business within the Arena Group umbrella.”