London, 9 September 2010: Opex Venue Services has secured a five-year contract to handle Ricoh Arena’s mains and house services. Within the agreement, which commenced in September 2010, Opex Group will also become the venue’s preferred exhibitor service supplier for shell scheme, electrics, furniture, flooring, logistics, data management and registration facilities.
Opex Venue Services is part of the Opex Group, one of the UK’s leading service suppliers to the events industry, which also encompasses Stanco Exhibitions, Expo-Systems and ExCeL Invision.
Angus Houston, Executive Director at the Ricoh Arena, said: “We are delighted to be working with Opex which has extensive experience and expertise in venue mains supply services. It is essential that we have a pro-active and reliable supplier like Opex during the coming months and years because we are entering a period of strategic growth with the conference and events business being up by 25% on 2009 already. Our exhibition space increased by another 2,000sqm when our two new halls opened in July 2010 and our conference, concert and live event business is steadily increasing in volume and frequency.”
The Ricoh Arena is still reaping the rewards of a fantastic July were they held one of the biggest conferences in the UK for a major UK blue chip company, when they held a conference and dinner for 3,500 people over three days which the whole of Coventry benefitted from due to the boost to the local economy.
Part of the newly formed alliance with the Ricoh Arena and the Opex Group is that electrical rates have been frozen until August 2011 which is makes it one of the cheapest venues for electrical services in the UK. The news is fantastic for exhibitions and events that are still coming out of a UK-wide rescission as Ricoh’s nearest competitor is reportedly set to increase its electrical rates by 20%.
Justin Phillips, Group Financial and Commercial Director for Opex Group, said: “We are looking forward to working with the Ricoh Arena team and developing the venue’s service facilities. They can be confident in our extensive resources and experience. Fostering partnerships with large and small venues is one of our key development strategies.
“The contract with the Ricoh Arena builds on our strong track record in partnering venues as we already supply mains and house services to Earls Court & Olympia and the Business Design Centre in London. Our ExCeL Invision business is another excellent example of a close supplier/venue relationship.”
News of the contract with the Ricoh Arena follows hot on the heels of Opex’s announcement in June 2010 that it had secured a significant investment from the Octopus Capital for Enterprise fund which has the Government and major high street banks as investors. The investment is currently being applied across the whole Group to support the Group’s core business, new software development, and strategic opportunities and partnerships.
“We also have a number of exciting new developments in the pipeline so will have more important news to report over the coming months,” Justin added.
