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Green-i Acquires Canegreen Commercial
Both companies were set up as associate business units to the successful rental production company Canegreen Ltd, established by Yan Stile and Pete Edmonds back in 1982. In 1996 Andrew Frengley spearheaded Canegreen’s expansion when the new Canegreen Commercial made an instant impact in the corporate event market. In 2001 Green-i, under Ian ‘Woody’ Woodall further underpinned the expansion with a vibrant installation division in the industry’s growing leisure hospitality sector. Concurrently Richard Brooker Sound Design added a third string to Canegreen’s bow.
managing director. Richard moves across from his former role as Operations Director at Canegreen.
“We could see an obvious synergy of rolling Canegreen Commercial into Green-i, since both companies had reached the top in their respective fields,” commented Woody. “The move was triggered by the large number of rental staging events we were being asked to produce in venues for which we had previously carried out installations.”
An obvious example was elite A-list venue, the Cuckoo Club. “We have already staged five live gigs and private parties since carrying out the original installation — including shows for Guns n’ Roses and INXS — yet we were not really set up as a hire company and therefore needed to draw upon our sister company’s resources.”
Now, in addition to being a design, sales, installation and maintenance company Green-i can legitimise its hire activity via the extensive audio stock Canegreen Commercial has historically used to service prrestigious events at venues like the Grosvenor House Hotel, Natural History Museum and Royal Albert Hall — including awards galas, conferences, film premieres and fashion shows.
Green-i already has good pedigree within its workforce. Matt Bate and Phil Blue formerly worked on the technical/AV staff at the Café de Paris — a formidable hosting venue in London’s West End — while engineer Sam Liston’s early work experience with Canegreen Commercial had stood him in good stead for his move between companies.
Canegreen Commercial brings with it a wealth of experience and excellence through permanent staffer Graeme Devenish and an extensive register of freelance engineers.
In keeping with all the Canegreen Group companies, whose activities now span four warehouse units in Tottenham’s Northumberland Park, Green-i’s business has expanded manifestly during its short history and can now boost its hire stock with the addition of video, staging and lighting equipment.
Richard Martin, meanwhile, has been with Canegreen since 1996 — progressing from touring technician into design and implementation of stock allocation systems, eventually performing full operations management.
“Since both companies are leaders in their fields, by bringing the two forces together via acquisition we can now offer a complete range of services to both companies’ respective client bases from a single resource,” he confirmed.
And Andrew Frengley added: “The restructuring provides a powerful response to market conditions and we will be much stronger placed for future growth as a result. For established Canegreen Commercial clients it will be business as usual. I will maintain my current contacts who will experience only subtle differences such as an administrative name change. Even our logos are virtually the same as we already share aspects of group identity.”
To accommodate the changes, Canegreen Ltd itself has itself restructured, with Luther Edmonds (son of Pete) taking on Richard Martin’s former role while George Breacker has also replaced the long-serving Pete Hughes as special projects manager.
Said Canegreen Ltd’s managing director, Yan Stile: “This acquisition makes perfect sense for everyone. While the original company continues to focus on the concert touring market there is still a massive market to plumb in the corporate event and party sector as well as installation. Pete and I are excited by the future prospects for Green–i.”
In picture: The Green-i of Canegreen - Andrew Frengley, Richard Martin and Ian Woodall and the full team: Ian Woodall, Yan Stile, Matt Bate, Richard Martin, Andrew Frengley, Pete Edmonds.
9th January 2007
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