Mahaffey Tent and Event Rentals, a locally owned business with more than 90 years in Memphis, is growing by leaps and bounds through geographic expansion, the addition of new products and by adding new employees. The company was recently voted as one of the top 100 inner-city businesses in Memphis by ICIC (Initiative for a Competitive Inner City) for the third consecutive year.
“Memphis is where Mahaffey believes real businesses and brands exist, not trends,” says Alex Ezell, Mahaffey Marketing Coordinator. “Memphis’ geographic centralization is a definite advantage in both area coverage that Mahaffey can service nationally and cost-savings of logistics in doing so.”
The company enjoyed 76.6 percent growth from 2009 to 2013, and it reported revenues of $32.6 million for last year.
“Over the last few years, our company growth has been a product of hiring better people (from leadership to laborers), placing more agile and cost-effective operations into process, and implementing a much more nimble, innovative approach to revenue generation,” says Ezell. “In addition to inbound marketing at the head of our messaging focus, we've evolved our product line to directly address the needs of our customers.”
In 1924, brothers Owen, Gene and Earl Mahaffey began making canvas tarpaulins, awnings and cotton pick sacks. When a request came in 1929 to make a tent, they obliged, only to have their client fail to pick it up. It remained unused until they received a call from the Tri-State Fair (now known as the Mid-South Fair). That call resulted in their first tent rental and the next phase of the business was formed.
In World War II, Mahaffey contracted to make hospital ward tents and ammunition bags for the Army (the sole job of the company for the duration of the war), and they shipped a boxcar of tents each week.
In 1972, William F. Pretsch purchased the company from the Mahaffey family when the owner Eldred ‘Red’ Mahaffey died in a private airplane accident. Pretsch immediately saw the benefits of the new clear span structures he had seen in Europe and was the first to introduce them to the American market in 1982. In 2011, William J. Pretsch and George Smith purchased the company Pretsch.
This year Mahaffey has lined up new strategic partnerships with organizations like the
American Petroleum Institute (API), launching new tent structures and event rentals. The result: business has nearly doubled so far this year, with new crowd control rentals, lounge furniture and stadium seating for special events, and innovative blast resistant tent structures for API and other national industrial customers.
“Aside from new tents and rental accessories being added to our vast inventory, Mahaffey plans to triple the size of the rental showroom on our local side. The renovation process will begin the first week of December,” Ezell says. “Marketing and sales technology will increase five-fold over the next few years, as will the resources allocated to those teams.”
The accommodate the recent growth, Mahaffey is also beefing up its staff, adding ten new employees in the first ten months of this year. The business now employs 110 people and plans for more hires over the next few months.
The company’s impressive client/event list includes Presidential Inaugurations, the Olympic Games, the NFL Super Bowl, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Hangout Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Life is Beautiful Festival, New Port Folk Festival, Indy Race, CMA Country Music Awards, CNN, ESPN, and FedEx, as well as a variety of local charities and non-profit organizations like the American Red Cross,
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The
Exchange Club Family Center, Youth Villages, Fayette Cares, Special Kids & Families, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis,
Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club, Gifts in Kind, Boy Scouts of America, and
ArtsMemphis.
By Michael Waddell
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