CEG lighting and sound hire company based in Wattisfield. Business owners with equipment, Benjamin Bowles (left) and Gavin Thorfold (right).

BRIGHT sparks Benjamin Bowles, Emrys Green and Gavin Thorrold are now in their 20s. But the beginnings of their lighting, sound and staging business go back to their schooldays in the Bury St Edmunds area.

Benjamin Bowles (left) and Gavin Thorfold of CEG

In fact, today, schools are among the three entrepreneurs’ major customers, continuing a link which began when they became involved in performances as teenagers.

Emrys and Benjamin were in sixth form together at King Edward VI school in Bury, while Gavin was at Thurston Community College. Their paths crossed through the theatre shows and concerts they were involved in.

“It started with us all really being involved in performances of some kind, either acting or helping behind the scenes,” says Benjamin.

“I was never big on theatre. I still do theatre work, but me and Gavin definitely prefer the rock and roll stuff. We do quite a lot of theatre work but also conference work and music conferences.”

Benjamin, the son of two self-employed parents who were inspirations to him - his mother runs a bed and breakfast in his home town of Clare, and his father a sandwich shop - joined CEG Productions in 2008, several months after it was launched by Gavin, a farmer’s son, Emrys and a third partner who left it to pursue other interests.

“I started with a marketing role actually, trying to do a bit of business development because the marketing wasn’t up to scratch and I had done website development and re-did the logo,” he explains.

“I started out with that, and my involvement evolved quite quickly to becoming a director and where I am now - a bit of everything really.”

Today, Gavin and Benjamin work full-time for the company, while Emrys divides his time between the business and consultancy work.

Between them, the trio cover every part of the business, which includes a shop, opened in August at Court Industrial Estate, Vinces Road, Diss. They also do online sales of equipment, equipment hire, and setting up equipment - either temporary or permanent - for events as diverse as school concerts, theatre productions, festivals, weddings, conferences, gigs or private parties.

It’s a full-time business, and they find themselves working every day of the week – with a lot of gigs and events inevitably falling at weekends while corporate events can fall at any time.

The business’s biggest customers, inevitably, are centred around Bury, but, having this year taken on a warehouse with an office and shopfront at Diss – the rents are cheaper there – it is rapidly 
expanding to other parts of the region, as well as London and the south-east.

Prior to the move, the trio were working out of an outbuilding, but their new premises gives them lots of opportunity to expand and diversify the business.

The business also does a lot of work for other hire companies, as well as with amateur dramatics groups and individuals who require them for parties. The work is “reasonably well paid”, but involves a lot of hard work says Benjamin.

“You do a lot of prep before a job and after a job,” he says.

“We have bought quite a lot of equipment, and equipment is the most expensive thing, but now we are more established we have better relationships with suppliers so the prices are now dropping.”

Given the youth of the company, the business has not yet had experience of trading in good times. But weathering the post-credit crunch era has made it a lean and durable enterprise.

“It has been very strange because we have never seen it in former years. We are taking our best at the moment as what we should expect,” says Benjamin.

He has high hopes for when the economy recovers in three or four years’ time, but says they are “taking every day as it comes”.

The responsibilities in running their own business at a relatively young age has helped them mature – although they still like to go out and enjoy themselves, says Benjamin.

“We are all far too serious for our age. My girlfriend thinks I’m 40-odd,” he jokes.

“We want the business to work. We go out partying like everyone else, but you have still got to get up Monday morning.”

He adds: “We get on well with each other. We have our disagreements, but we all know where the company is going and what we want to achieve with it.”

They have recently launched

their online sales arm, selling lighting and sound equipment, and already it is an important part of the business and has even brought them customers from elsewhere in Europe. On the hire side, they do quite a bit of work in London.

“We have got good links with 
distributors and manufacturers now. Relationships are 
really important,” says Benjamin.

As well as their online 
shop, they have also opened a store at Diss, both for passing trade and for customers who want to see the equipment being demonstrated.

They try to be adaptable – if a venue needs a power generator to operate the equipment, they’ll provide that as well.

“Every day is different and there is a different challenge every day. You get to see different people, different things, you get to travel around the region,” says Benjamin.

They were given their initial boost through a loan from Foundation East, a community finance organisation providing loans of up to £50,000 to businesses that have been refused bank finance.

“It’s all about slow growth, not rushing into it. Our bank manager is very good. She takes an active interest in seeing how we’re doing,” explains Benjamin.

When the youngest of the three original business partners left in 2008 and the two remaining friends recruited Benjamin, the three decided to incorporate the business.

But at that point they hit a financial hurdle when they wanted to purchase more equipment to expand the business.

“In order to grow the business we needed to increase the amount of equipment we had,” explains Emrys.

“This involved an investment of a relatively small amount, £1,500. Our bank manager was very supportive but because of our ages, we had no credit history and so her hands were tied when it came to giving us a loan. She suggested we contact a local organisation, Foundation East, who consider applications from businesses with little credit history, and so we did that.”

Foundation East, also based in Bury St Edmunds, approved a loan providing the capital injection CEG needed and from then on, there was no looking back.

“Our local loans manager at Foundation East, Valerie Jarrett, was enormously helpful,” explains Emrys.

“For us, things turned out
far better than they would have done had we been able to secure 
the loan from our bank. Valerie helped us formulate our business plan and would proactively call us to see how we were getting on. I always knew I could call her if I needed to.”

Six months later, Emrys’ former deputy headmaster, impressed with what the company was now doing, stepped in to lend them a further £10,000.

Last year, Emrys received national recognition for his achievements with CEG when he made it to the national finals of the Enterprising Young Brits.

The Foundation East loan has been paid back in full and CEG continues to go from strength to strength – although it has not been an easy ride.

“We have had to do a lot of hard work ourselves and there has been some times where there is no money in the bank account and we don’t know how we are going to get through the next two months,” says Benjamin.

On those occasions, they have been saved by an unexpected contract which has turned up in the nick of time.

Last year, the company increased its turnover nearly 40% and the year before that by 45%. This year it hopes to take another leap and increase sales by 50%.

Valerie Jarrett, business loans manager at Foundation East, has been delighted to see her faith in the company rewarded.

“Although a realistic business plan and cashflow projections are prerequistes for a loan, business is about people,” she says.

“The team behind CEG were young, but they have the drive and enterpreneurial spirit to make the company a success. It has been good to see how a small injection of cash has helped to propel the business forward.”

Emrys, who also works as a stakeholder engagement consultant, believes the best time to set up your own business is when you have no other responsibilities such as mortgages and family.

“We were all still living at home when we set up CEG, and so we didn’t have a lot to lose when we started out. Our aim is to become the premier supplier of technical and production services in the region,” he says.