Member profile: Inventory and geographic diversity — a pandemic lifesaver
By Connie Lannan
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Member profile: Inventory and geographic diversity — a pandemic lifesaver

PRO EM National Event Services, based in Phoenix, always had a full slate of events on the books, everything from smaller corporate meetings, weddings and social gatherings to large-scale nationally televised sporting events, concerts and festivals. The company has handled events such as the Waste Management Phoenix Open, NASCAR races, the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament and the Grammys, to name just a few.

Then the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit. Like most other event rental operations, the team at PRO EM saw its full slate of events evaporate within a matter of days.

“When the shutdown first happened in March 2020, I think it was a shock to all of us,” says Brady Castro, principal at the company. “We had to take a step back and think about how we were going to react and respond to this.”

That is when their history of being a diverse rental operation, not only in their inventory mix but also in their geography, became an even stronger asset.

In 2017, the company was known as PRO EM Party & Event Rentals. It started acquiring industry leaders across the United States to form a single company that specialized in large-scale event production. PRO EM first acquired Partytime-HDO Productions, a Niles, Ill.,-based provider of tenting, flooring, lighting and fabric design for sporting events, corporate functions and weddings. Then it acquired Universal Resource Supply/SoCal Tents & Events, a Los Angeles-based event rental company.

The initial reason for this expansion was twofold. “First and foremost was seasonality. We know how hot it gets in Arizona and the Southwest during the summer months. These companies had complementary asset bases and complementary events in other parts of the country. This allowed us to become a true 12-month operation. We also looked for companies that had similar inventories with large tents and structures. Those companies were leaders in their markets in that space. By putting all of them together we could better utilize all our assets and use them on a larger footprint geographically and also throughout the year,” Castro says.

With this strong base, the company has been able to bring its extensive product offerings and services to events throughout the country. This includes event management, planning and logistics, rental equipment and materials for any size occasion.

For the team at PRO EM National Event Services, their innovative events and festival production have been “driven by our clients and our partners and what they are looking for,” Castro says.

That means finding new ways to use space and structures. “We look at different ways to decorate them and activate them. We also fabricate some of our furniture and décor in-house. We want to approach every job so it is working in harmony with our partners to help them accomplish what they need,” Castro says.

When the pandemic caused mass shutdowns, Castro admits “there was a lot of shell shock. In a certain way we had to be reactive for what was going on around us and what government entities were saying regarding restrictions. Then we started to get a picture of how we can help and what we can do. It took a few weeks of uncertainty and looking across the table of ‘Now what do we do?’”

As soon as they got their bearings as far as what was needed, the company went into action. They relied on their diverse inventory and geographic strength to keep their Phoenix, Tucson, Chicago and Los Angeles locations as busy as possible during these unprecedented times.

“In Arizona, we quickly put up tents and structures for COVID testing and later vaccinations. In Chicago, we put up a lot of tents for outdoor seating at restaurants. We built a lot of extra real estate for restaurants around Chicago and Los Angeles so those places could stay open. Those were the biggest, most immediate ways we were able to pivot. We also were able to do some work for government initiatives. These jobs allowed us to be sustainable during the worst of the virus,” Castro says. 

At this time, PRO EM also was determined to keep as much of its full-time staff as possible. “We made the decision to hold onto as many people as we could, so when things reopened, we could respond faster,” Castro says.

Now that COVID regulations have been lifted, that is exactly what the company is doing.

“We are in the process of bringing people back and we are hiring. We are back to working full bore and looking for people,” Castro says.

While they still have some long-term projects out, the PRO EM team is focused primarily on what it was founded on: event rentals.

“At the core of our business we are an event rental company. We do rentals for short term projects, music festivals, golf tournaments and backyard parties. There may be opportunity as we do some of the long-term stuff, but there is a shelf life to that. We know that events will always be around, hopefully. That is where we keep our focus and understand that is our core competency. We have key opportunities in other areas that we are cautiously analyzing to see what opportunities remain in those different spaces,” Castro says.

The good news is that events are coming back in force.

“Our LA store, in the span of six weeks in the fall, will be handling three or four different large-scale music festivals and a couple of golf tournaments. Our Chicago office is packed with live events and golf tournaments. We also have started to get a lot of renewed interest and some of our fall events coming back in Arizona. Overall, we will do 24 golf tournaments this year across the PGA. We are getting ready for the Electric Daisy Carnival in Vegas, too. For the golf tournaments, we offer tents and structures. For the Waste Management Phoenix Open, we provide the entire scope — tents, tables, chairs, furniture, décor, fencing, barricades, security, parking, traffic control and transportation management. It looks like things are on their way back, which is exciting for all of us. In terms of live events, the next six to 12 months are looking up and people are ready to get back to getting out and having fun,” Castro says.

Castro and his team are grateful for not only surviving the worst of the pandemic but also having events and festivals back on the books. Going through all of this has taught everyone at the company valuable lessons that they will rely on moving forward.

“We learned that we, as an organization and as an industry, are stronger together. Throughout some of these conversations I had during the pandemic with the different companies on some of these different American Rental Association (ARA) platforms, we shared ideas. We leaned on each other here within our organization and leaned on our different stores, capitalized on opportunities in different markets and shared inventory and so forth. Our leadership, our board of directors and our investors were behind us all the way, which is a huge testament to them. I think all of that brought us together as an organization and, I hope, as the industry,” says Castro, who now serves on the Event Rental Advocacy Work Group, which is designed to address legislative issues of concern to the event rental segment.  

“Another good thing that came out of this pandemic is that it showed us who we are,” Castro adds. “We showed our true colors. We were there for each other. It demonstrated that our biggest strength is our people. We have talented, dedicated professionals in all aspects of our company. I think what makes us ‘us’ is the hearts of those people and their dedication. The inventory is great, as is our business and everything we do. We appreciate our partners, but what makes us ‘us’ is our people. That can’t be emphasized enough.”

Connie Lannan

Connie LannanConnie Lannan

Connie Lannan is special projects editor for Rental Management. She helps plan, coordinate, write and edit ARA’s quarterly regional newsletters, In Your Region. She also researches, writes and edits news and feature articles for Rental Management, Rental Pulse, supplements, special reports and other special projects. Outside of work, she loves to bake for others, go for walks with her husband and volunteer for her church and causes she believes in.

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