Yahire - Office Clearance, Office Relocation and Furniture Storage

Like so many in the events industry, Yahire have had to look at other ways of making money during these unprecedented times. Usually at this time of year Yahire are providing event furniture hire to 250 events per week, this year that is clearly not possible.

Many have spoken of the physical venues being affected by COVID-19, but the supply chain to the events chain has really felt too. 

We caught up with them to find out what they have been up to and their plans for the months ahead.  

Yahire’s co-founder Taran O’Doherty said “This whole period has been like a rollercoaster; it has been difficult to manage the speed of changes in restrictions and consumer confidence. We are fortunate that Yahire has a strong name and flow of enquiries from all event types, unlike many who just target one or two parts of the events industry. We were still able to do 200 events in the month of August, admittedly smaller than average orders but nevertheless, it still kept us busy and allowed us to turnover 25% of the previous year’s turnover (yes that is a victory, kind of says it all). Yahire has always focused on providing the same pricing, service and availability to any customer who wants to hire our products. This has meant whichever type of client is in need, we have a good chance of winning the enquiry and the sale, so even with a far smaller pie, we still eat our fair share”

Taran added “Things certainly changed at the start of September, the signs of recovery were clear to see and we were confident September was going to be even better than August. Then came the announcement from Boris, the rule of 6 and then the announcement of the event ‘open date’ due for the start of October was cancelled. This led to a flurry of cancellations and enquiries drying up over the next few weeks. It was at this point that we realised that the government were going to handle this a certain way and we had to create other ways of making money if we wanted to ensure we will make it through Covid. Our landlord and council have not been supportive so far, our rent and rates are high as we have a North London 25,000 sqft warehouse. Our team as of February was 76 fulltime people, we have had to trim hard and look at what will likely be buoyant in this climate.”

“We have looked at a few different areas to move into to bring new income. Having tested a few ideas and done some research, we landed on one which I feel will be very good for us, office clearance, office relocation and furniture storage. Our skills are very transferable into office clearance with our experienced marketing, logistics and transport teams. We launched a few weeks back and have already done 10 jobs and our pipeline is growing. We hope this and a few other ideas we are looking at can supplement our income to help us get through this tough winter.”

“After this is done I think events will be more important than ever, in a post Brexit and Covid world, businesses will have to show they are open for business and people will want to celebrate and make up for lost time. I hope normality can continue soon enough or adequate targeted support is forthcoming, otherwise, I worry for the state for our great industry.”

If you are looking at moving office and need some help, why not give Taran and his team a call.

For more info visit www.officeclearance.london or call 0203 8489261