Andy. Having read your brief synopsis of the, in the most part, good natured rivalry between Hammond/Orient and Promotor International I readily concur with many of your comments but not all. However, your comments concerning Bannons and how ruthless Peter was got me thinking.
So in reply to your post and I will try to keep this brief we have to start at the beginning with Peter Calderwood who set up the company ‘Promotor’ in 1970 to see the whole picture. You have already indicated in your last post and one a year or two back that you had to watch your back as far as Peter was concerned. Peter was an ideas man always seeking the holy grail. He would see an opening, set up a business, then look for someone with the necessary expertise and contacts to run it. Within a year or two, having acquired the knowledge himself that person would be STD. (shown the door). The first person Peter used was Chris Sly. The two of them worked for Fords in the 60’s and Chris had good contacts at Dunton. However, a few years later he was STD as he wasn’t needed anymore.
Bannons were fair game as far as Peter was concerned. I was there in our office the morning Bannons were informed of our intention to set up our own Exhibition Service Company. There was much excitement. Everyone was fired up. ‘We did a much better job than them and built the business up’ Peter said later. Flights, hotels, furniture hire were all added to the mix and a fully integrated service was offered to the clients.
The Anglo Yugo business and Zadenca was another good point in question. Zadenca, a Yugoslav, worked for a competitor. Peter enticed her and her hoppo to come to Promotor and run the business. A few years later she and her hoppo were STD. As i said, Peter was a ruthless man where business was concerned.
Promotor had their own workshop to look after the maintenance and repairs to the fleet of lorries and trailers. He put a guy in charge but after a few years realised the workshop would run just as well without him so he was STD.
Standfitting was another area he looked at. We handled the transport for Pye Unicam who were part of the Philips Group. Pye owned their own Octonorm System and built the stands for the whole group. A company near Cambridge maintained the equipment and built the stands mainly in the Commie block. Peter took on a guy with standfitting experience, cut the rates by combining it with other business we had at the same exhibition so reducing haulage charges and was awarded the contract. Once the business was up and running the chap in charge was STD.
Promotor Travel was another instance of his aggressive nature. He and Suzy P. were an item. They set up the travel business and looked to offer travel arrangements to exhibitors at the shows we serviced. All went well until they fell out a few years later. Here Peter didn’t get all his own way though as Suzy moved herself, the two travel tarts and the business up to Sevenoaks and continued as PM Travel. By then Peter though had the knowledge and we continued offering travel services which he and I ran together.
The Showhaul business was integrated into Promotor when they got into difficulties. Richard Dynes, founder of Showhaul, stayed on for a short time before he was STD.
The multi million pound Ford contract which was won in the early 90’s needed a guy who knew the ropes to run it. He lasted for just over a year before he was STD.
Finally it was the turn of Dave Stagg. Staggie had been with the company for many years and worked his way up to Director of Exhibitions but in the early 90’s he kinda lost his way. He was also STD. Peter told me later that getting rid of Staggie was the hardest thing he ever had to do.
So that left me but Peter couldn’t get rid of me even if he’d wanted to. In the late 80’s I was doing quite nicely. My wife and I had a large old farmhouse with three cottages down in Dorset. But Promotor, or should I say its banks, needed some financial guarantees to be in place. The banks were getting a bit uppertty and Peter asked me if I could help out. For that help I took almost half the equity in the company, he held the remainder.
However, by about 92/3 I had had enough. The Baghdad Fair and other shows in Iraq meant I was spending up to four months a year there. Tehran Fair plus shows like Iran Med also meant extended time away from home as well as the odd exhibition in Turkey, Saudi, Algiers or Dubai. I had been on the go, at the sharp end for twelve years. It was not just living out of a suitcase abroad that was taking its toll. When I was in the UK I shared a flat with Peter which only allowed me to see my family at weekends. I decided enough was enough.
We worked out a severance package and the idea was Peter would employ an ‘Exhibition Manager’ but then out of the blue the Ford Contract materialised. Peter did most of the work and it was awarded to us but he still needed help in setting it up. He asked me to stay on which I did for another year but by then he had lost all interest in exhibitions.
So getting back to the original point under discussion Andy. I have to disagree with your concluding comments in your post. Right up to the end we were still the dominant Exhibition Service Company operating in both Baghdad and Tehran offering the full service package. You only have to look at the attached brochure we put out in 89. The story doesn’t end in Promotors demise and Martin and Paul didn’t get their revenge. It was a combination of my deciding my family should come first and the winning of the lucrative Ford contract that finally allowed Orient to achieve the number one slot they had always craved but could never attain whilst Promotor held that accolade.
To conclude, I’d just like to say in a lighthearted way, you’re still that itch that needs scratching, but we luv yer still
