It All Began with a Single Hardware Store
Tent and Table’s Decade in Review doesn’t begin in 2009. We need to go all the way back to 1984 to really see how far our company has progressed in the past ten years.
The year was 1984. Gremlins, Ghostbusters, The Temple of Doom, and The Terminator were playing in theaters. Prince’s song When Doves Cry was dominating the radio waves. Apple was running their iconic Orwellian-themed TV commercial to frame IBM, then the world’s leading computer manufacturer, as “Big Brother.” Space Shuttle Discovery was making her maiden flight. And in Buffalo, a new rental company was being born.
Two young, charismatic entrepreneurs, Brett Begley and Mark Slater, opened their first store in 1984. ABC Hardware and Rental, Inc. sold and rented hardware, tools, outdoor products, and equipment. The store carried some party and event rental items—folding tables and folding chairs, mostly—but the focus initially was on contractor, construction, and lawncare equipment. Lavish weddings and upscale corporate expos couldn’t have been further from their minds.
As ABC Hardware and Rental grew its business and became more and more popular amongst its hardworking Buffalo clientele, Begley and Slater decided to add a bounce house to their inventory. And neither of them could have possibly predicted then just how transformative an experience that decision would prove itself to be.
Once the company dipped its toes in the party and event rental space, ABC Hardware and Rental quickly expanded to become the largest rental business in the Western New York region. Their already-strong hardware and equipment rentals were growing the company quickly, but entering into the realm of event and party rentals led to a massive boom in revenue. Before long, ABC was operating out of multiple locations, and party and event rentals were spearheading that growth.
From Rentals to Manufacturing: The Birth of Tent and Table
As the company’s party and event rental business expanded, Begley and Slater came to realize their needs as a rental company weren’t being entirely fulfilled by the manufacturers selling the equipment they were using. As the company grew, so too did their frustration with the industry’s offerings. They needed high quality equipment that could survive season after season of use, and those rental inventory items were hard to come by.
With only a handful of exceptions, most of the companies selling rental equipment didn’t actually start out as rental companies. And most of the companies that did begin in the rental space had since abandoned their rental operations. There frankly weren’t many companies around that not only made rental equipment, but put it to use in the real world on a daily basis.
That’s when Begley and Slater had an idea. They wanted to expand into the manufacturing sector, selling party and event rental equipment. But they’d keep their rental operations active, too, crafting items they could not only sell, but rent out to their loyal local customers in and around the Buffalo region.
In 2009, Begley and Slater carefully put together a highly qualified team of skilled designers, sales experts, marketing professionals, and shipping gurus. Their goal: create rental equipment that actual rental professionals would find reliable, at prices those professionals could truly afford. And with this, Tent and Table was born.
Tent and Table’s Front Line Designs
With a strong rental business backing its play, Tent and Table began manufacturing high quality pole tents, frame tents, bounce houses, inflatable water slides, folding tables, folding chairs, and more. These products would be manufactured by TNT and then field tested by ABC in real, functional rental environments before hitting the proverbial shelves of the company’s e-commerce store.
Using the company’s new equipment in the field gave Tent and Table tangible, real world feedback on the quality of their products. Equipment wasn’t tested in some laboratory with emulated scenarios. If a tent top faded, or if tent poles got rusty, or if a bounce house leaked, ABC staffers would see it first hand and report those issues so they could be fixed in future build iterations.
These sorts of reports led the company toward design features like reinforced stress areas and the use of schedule 40 aluminum for some tent poles. Tent and Table started using innovative stress point slack technology, which alleviates pressure at 90 degree stress points. They implemented No Jump Top™ safety netting. And they learned to utilize high quality commercial materials like heavy duty vinyl to ensure longevity and improve product safety overall.
Being a Buffalo company helps Tent and Table ensure quality further, too. Buffalo is known globally for a great many things—the Niagara Falls, Buffalo wings, and the Buffalo Bills—but the city’s intense weather and lake effect snow are infamous. If rental equipment can survive multiple seasons here, it can survive anywhere.
Driving the quality of their products even further, Begley and Slater approached their designs with an unspoken rule that they would only sell products safe enough for their own families to use. If they wouldn’t feel safe letting their children play in their inflatables, it was back to the drawing board.
Fueled by Quality, TNT Sees Explosive Growth
Tent and Table’s commitment to quality nearly instantly led to rapid, explosive growth. What started as a small-scale manufacturing venture quickly spiraled into a large multi-million dollar company, with an ever-growing staff of detail oriented, safety committed professionals helping the company stay on course.
The company’s product quality, helpful and personable sales staff, and fast shipping established Tent and Table out of the gate as a rising star in the event and party equipment manufacturing field. Soon after the new company’s launch, Tent and Table was showcasing products at some of the industry’s brightest national events, including IAAPA and the ARA. They were making a name for themselves as a serious contender amongst industry leaders … not an easy feat for a company that began as a “what if.”
Whereas most companies would abandon their rental businesses to focus on their booming manufacturing prospects, Begley and Slater stayed true to their vision of creating an equipment supplier made by and for rental businesses. To this day, all of the products sold by Tent and Table are field tested and quality assured by ABC Hardware and Rental in Buffalo.
Tent and Table Isn’t Just a Company. It’s a Family
In the face of such tremendous growth, many business owners might find themselves slipping into viewing their staff in the abstract. With so many new employees joining the company, you might forgive Begley and Slater for forgetting a staffer’s name or not knowing much about their newest hire. But Tent and Table is a different kind of company.
When I first came to work at Tent and Table back in June, I understood that this was a rapidly growing company. I never expected I’d meet Mr. Begley or Mr. Slater … I had no illusions they even knew my name. At a company this size, I assumed I would just be a very small cog in a very large machine.
A few days into my new job, a man I’d never seen before came into my office carrying a large box of ice cream, which he doled out to the staff. And I was surprised to learn that this stranger not only knew my name, but knew my fiancee and I were expecting a child. He wanted to know how I was liking Buffalo, and what our wedding plans were. He wanted to offer some sage advice to a new father. That man was Brett Begley. And that day, Tent and Table became a whole lot smaller, in all the right ways.
Tent and Table may be a big company experiencing perpetual growth, but somehow, Mr. Begley and Mr. Slater have cultivated a sense of belonging for the staff unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else I’ve worked. The staff here aren’t just coworkers. They’re siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles. Tent and Table is a family. And our company events feel as much like reunions as business functions.
The Past Decade in Review … and The Next Decade, Too
In the past ten years, Tent and Table has evolved from a small boutique into a full fledged industry leader. And while Brett Begley and Mark Slater deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their leadership and vision, they weren’t alone in building this company up to the stature it has today.
The dedication and ingenuity of the company’s staff have contributed integrally to the rapid growth Tent and Table has enjoyed throughout the past decade. But even the staff doesn’t deserve the bulk of the credit. That belongs to the loyalty, input, and commitment of the company’s base of regular customers—they’re as much a part of our story and our family as the staff—that have truly driven Tent and Table’s success.
It’s impossible to write a Decade in Review without considering what the next decade might bring. What new products will Tent and Table introduce? Who will join the company’s family-like staff? Which new trade shows will we find ourselves setting up at? What customer experiences and interactions will shape our next big innovations in the industry?
Regardless of what the future may hold, we can all rest assured that Tent and Table will hold true to its core values. This is a company created by a rental business, operating with the goal of benefiting the rental companies it serves. We truly comprehend the value of our products, because we see them in action every day. We know what works and what doesn’t. We’re not just selling our products. We’re actually using them, in the real world. And that’s just one of the many things that keeps us a step ahead of our competition.
Thank You from Tent and Table for a Triumphant Decade
We’d like to take a moment to thank all of our customers who’ve made possible Tent and Table’s tremendous growth in the past decade. Without you, our company simply could not exist. And to our staff and their families, thank you for all of your committed, passionate work and your unwavering devotion to helping our customers grow their businesses and succeed.
This decade in review isn’t just the story of how Brett Begley and Mark Slater built this company. It’s the story of our amazing, hardworking staff forming an unbreakable bond with our customers. And if we had to sum up the success of these past ten years, there’s no better way to word it.