Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Tent-renter branching out
BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
While April showers assuredly bring May flowers, those raindrops are also splashing black ink onto the balance sheet of Alleen Corp., a hospitality-planning and tent-making company.
The Sharonville company is providing tents for two significant events: the Cincinnati Flower and Garden Show presented by Provident Bank and the Cincinnati Park Board Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show.
At the butterfly show, held in Eden Park Wednesday through June 20, the firm is contributing two tent pavilions covering almost 2,000 square feet for nine weeks. The firm has been contracted to provide 90 tents for the flower show, at Ault Park Wednesday through Sunday. Although spring weddings are also keeping employees busy, those two events are the focus this week.
“There are plenty of logistics,” said President Dan Kitzmiller, a 37-year-old Amberley Village resident who took over as president of Alleen in August. “The tents have to be clean and presentable and erected properly so that if there is foul weather — rather, when foul weather comes along — the tents are not coming down until we want them to come down.”
Alleen was founded in 1951 as an event rental company that provided tents, chairs, tables and casino equipment for church and other festivals. When Mr.
Kitzmiller left his position as the manager of the small-business lending group at Fifth Third Bank to buy the company, he saw an opportunity for growth at the firm that employed 35 workers.
Three sectors drive revenues, projected at $4 million in 1999: large outdoor events and convention opportunities; smaller festivals like the summer church events held throughout Greater Cincinnati; and providing tents, linens, china, silver and glassware for parties and weddings.
“More and more large corporations are using events to get their messages out,” Mr. Kitzmiller said. “They are spending a large chunk of their advertising dollars on the events; and with the healthy economy in Cincinnati, that plays into our hands.”
The growth of event sponsorships by companies will translate into greater opportunities for Alleen, said John Angelo, president of Eventures, a 9-year-old public relations, marketing and fund-raising firm based in Cincinnati.
“There is a growing sophistication by companies,” Mr. Angelo said. “That is going to develop the hospitality side of events: canopies, tables, chairs, linens, the things that make an evening special.”
Alleen officials realized that although the company has 250 tent styles in its inventory, specialty requests meant that the company had to turn to an outside provider. As a result, last year, the firm hired four new employees and created a tent manufacturing division at a Hamilton warehouse on Ohio 4 near the Butler County Fairgrounds.
The division will enable the company to compete with regional tent manufacturers, particularly a firm in Chattanooga, Tenn., which has dominated Midwest tent manufacturing.
“We are able to manufacture a quality tent for about one-third of what it costs us to buy a new tent, and not sacrifice anything in terms of quality and service,” Mr. Kitzmiller said. “The payoff is reduced inventory cost and not having to rely on a third party to manufacture and ship what we need.”
Locating the manufacturing division in Butler County made sense, as well, he said: “We were able to obtain low-cost, competitive warehouse space and for favorable lease terms.”
While the custom tent manufacturing arm might be a future area of revenue growth for the company, that division is on the back burner this month. The flower show has the participation of 100 corporate or individual event sponsors at varying degrees of participation.
Alleen is also building a 28,000-
square-foot tent to seat 1,100 for a Zoofari benefit for the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Sept. 17 and tents for the Great American Insurance ATP Championship Aug. 9-15 in Mason.
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