2021: A Year in Overdrive
The Tent OX team started the year with unknowns and hurdles to overcome, just as most of the world did. As we reflect on all that was accomplished and gained in 2021, we feel nothing but gratitude for the opportunities and relationships forged with every new milestone. Join us in a Year in Review of our favorite memories. Let’s jump right in, starting with an epic…
Road Tour
On March 23, Scott Pickel set off from Cleveland on his Year of the OX Road Tour. The Tent OX truck was towing a complete Tent OX Tent Installation System, traveling through 15 states and racking up 12,000 miles. Scott visited more than 200 tent and event companies on his journey, and he proved that personal contact with prospective customers on their home turf pays big dividends. Over the three months on the road, we learned that…
Many OXen made lighter work in the tight 2021 labor market Thomas A. Edison said, “There is no substitute for hard work.” But when labor is in severely short supply, as it was in 2021, most companies found it useful to have some powerful tent installation machinery sent out with the crew to help out in solving a serious labor shortage.
COVID-19’s arrival a few months into 2020 had thrown a long-lasting monkey wrench into every tent and event company’s labor plans for that year. When the market came roaring back in 2021, fewer workers were available to put up all the tents that had been booked. Businesses did the only thing they could to compensate by reaching out to Tent OX in unprecedented numbers. So unprecedented, in fact, that they bought nearly three times as many machines in 2021 as in any single previous year! All that buying inevitably led to supply chain issues, and cries of …
“Where’s my Tent OX?” As demand for Tent OX machines took off, we were not immune to supply chain issues.
That was the case even though we ordered far in excess of our need. As a result, we sold everything out and had to rely on some good will, a lot of phone calls, and luck to help fill the gap in order to get as many machines as possible out the door. We know the supply chain will slowly ease its grip on inventory, and we’ll get all the machines we order in a more timely way as time passes. This year proved in greater numbers than ever that Tent OX is the most important labor-saving system for tent installations that has ever been introduced into the market.
But talk is cheap. Could we prove its value in a dollars and cents example? Scott Pickel worked his way through the dozens of ROI calculations he had completed for customers in 2021 customers and published…
An eye-popping ROI excercise
We had been telling prospective buyers that Tent OX would pay for itself in maybe three years if used to maximum effect. And this was based directly on what customers reported to us. But with wages and benefits climbing so quickly, we found that Tent OX in 2021 could pay for itself far faster by simply buying one in place of a planned new hire.
Using the most conservative assumptions, we figured the ROI for purchasing a Tent OX System now stands at a mere 14 months: one season plus a couple of months of the next!
And once paid for, Tent OX is ready to work every day for many years straight, and it never gets tired. That’s why Tent OX showed up in at a trade show in November ready to work! In real time, Tent OX demonstrated how much labor it can save tent and event companies by putting up the latest and greatest new tents at….
There was happiness in the air and perfect weather at this year’s MATRA Tent Show, held at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT. We in the tent and event community proved how much we had missed each other after COVID-19 had cancelled a year of outdoor shows. Tents from all the leading manufacturers rose once more, and they were even more beautiful after having been absent for so long. Multiple Tent OX machines ran around the Winter Parking Lot, quickly driving the vast majority of the 1,000 or so stakes required to make the tents “fly.”
Stake pulling and fork attachments also helped get the tents and tables back in trucks faster and far easier for the ride home.
End-of-Year Sales Flurries to Warm Us Up
Years of talking about labor-savings seem to be paying off, especially with this year’s tight labor market. Throughout the year, a pronounced acceleration in buying cycles made it challenging to source all the machines that customers needed. But good news awaits us in 2022! We’ve taken major strides toward strengthening our supply chains so you can get your Tent OX Tent Installation System as soon as you’re ready to take your business to the next level. We know this next year will be a breakout year for most of the tent and event industry. The Text OX team stands eager, motivated, and…
In mid-November we brought on board Andy Mattrick as General Manager and appointed Scott Pickel National Sales Manager.
Andy (left) is an industry veteran who ran a large regional Tent and Event company in the Northeast, and he’s taken with taking an established national presence and making it larger. Scott Pickel, another industry veteran, came into his own as an extraordinary force in sales for the company this year. We’re fortunate to have both of them.
We conclude this Year in Review with grateful hearts and high hopes for the new year. One of the brightest highlights from 2021 was seeing the tent and event rental industry come together like never before, in support of new technologies, enhanced ideas, and creative problem-solving to help one another out. Tent OX is proud to be a part of this unique community and we look forward to serving you for years to come!