24 April 18 - TripleA and Airquee 2018 Trade Show

TripleA and Airquee 2018 Review

Yes, we all know it was coming! Spencer’s trade show ramblings and self inflated ego running wild as he professes to know everything there is to know about inflatables, while demonstrating that he knows less than nothing!

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show. There wasn’t much notice considering they was positioning this as a “trade show”. I think we had approx one month of it being pushed hard and being held at the kick-off of a late season start.

Despite this, it was very well attended and absolutely worth going to.

I do not believe it will ever directly compete with the two major trade shows of the year, but there is definitely a space in the market for this.

I’ll start with some negatives, but both of these are actually signs of positives if you look properly:

Airquee did not have enough stock to take away on the day.
It felt a lower budget event than other trade shows, with one of the barns having some work on-going during the exhibit

I believe that both of these issues where a direct result of the lack of lead time. Airquee didn’t have enough stock, didn’t want to over-commit in case it wasn’t a success and the barns where nearly finished, but not quite.

I actually quite liked the vibe of it not being on the same grandiose level of other trade shows. It couldn’t replace them, but it did mean that there was some rather cool perks that you just don’t get elsewhere:

Bargains; I saw one ex-demo unit that should cost at least £2,500 market value at £1,250. They had items that they just wouldn’t make money on at another show that they could put out quickly.
Space; There wasn’t some giant Airquee 100 foot obstacle course that you could only see the front entrance of, but the rest tucked away and wedged up against other equipment. I could walk round clearly and easily. This allowed for better viewing, more items and diverse items.
Time; It’s not an established industry show, so I was fortunate enough to go at a time when it wasn’t heaving with bodies. I was able to talk to the main representatives for both Airquee and TripleA at length, as well as the main guys at BCN! I got a feel of their modus operandi as well and the chance to ask them some genuine questions.

Both of these issues wouldn’t be a problem for the next one. They shifted a lot of stock, saw demand and took orders. They’re astute enough to realise that next time, they need to increase the stock available to walk away with what seems like a very strong relationship with TripleA, could potentially expand on their held stock on their site. Anyway, what do you expect for coming on the last day?

Most of the review will likely focus on TripleA, they had a lot more on show and they’re the company I knew least about and wanted to find out more from them.

TripleA

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So I actually learned quite a lot while I was there. I spotted that there was different styles of manufacturing, materials and artwork across different types of units for TripleA’s exhibits.

My understanding of TripleA is that they are a big hire company that imports safe Chinese stock and sells it off, giving you piece of mind that it’s legit as it’s inspected by a registered RPII Inspector.

Christopher Keen, the TripleA representative confirmed that that’s not too far off the mark. However, he offered up a lot more, explaining that he has some real buying power and is directly involved in the production lines.

They’ll get a design made as cheaply as possible, then add the extras to make it great for the hire market and lend his knowledge of manufacturing to to the factory, building it from the ground up for purpose and based on experience.

For example, zips added to the rear of the castle instead of the side, rounded edges where possible, instead of right-angles where they might cause stress. There was various other examples, but one that struck a cord with me was the benefits of the large factories, where their “sewing bench” can be several hundred feet long, enabling them to make large equipment and large runs without having to stop and pull material through (causing pressure points and twists through un-eveness in the sewing, keep stopping and starting).

A lot of people will have heard of Pro-Fab; They make great soft play structures and massive great big £30,000 fair ground inflatables with moving heads and all sorts of elaborate parts.

One of the exhibits had some inflatables that stood out as very different to the rest. Hand painted and air-brushed artwork, seat-belt webbing; not PVC, different material and made differently. I pointed out that these looked incredibly like pro-fab units. Triple-A didn’t hide this at all, and confirmed that they was. He explained that he was able to go to their factory, help them with smaller scale unit production issues and come up with some out-standing results.

I learned a lot about TripleA as a company and how they’re able to offer the quality at that price point. Essentially it’s down to foreign labour being much cheaper as well as using huge factories that cannot afford to be idle.

When they have down time in production, they do not want to let staff go; They simply would lose skill and cost them too much in training new staff and the cost of the labour turn-over.

TripleA are able to commit to very large orders and not worry about lead times.

That sort of model just doesn’t work for small importers only buying a container, and certainly not for a small hire company looking to take a chance on a Chinese import; You need buying power and the ability to be directly involved in their production line.

They’re agnostic to where it comes from, not limiting themselves to one factory, and not specific to only China; They actually import from China, Spain as well as Romania.

The Romanian location caught my interest. I was curious as to why TripleA are able to offer Airquee’s e-range. I had wondered whether Airquee also buy from the same Chinese factory as TripleA for their e-range, but make the rest of their inflatables in-house.

It turns out that TripleA buy Airquee’s e-range stock directly from their Romanian factory, using the same principal of buying in bulk at a good price when the machinists aren’t busy.

I had half hoped to have picked up a scoop, confirming that something was being miss-sold, but alas this makes much more sense.

TripleA was very hospitable and made us feel very welcomed, they offered me advice on my own hire company, and while the show needs to make sales to be sustainable, I wasn’t ever pushed into anything.

One of things I walked away feeling was that TripleA have a genuine interest in raising standards.

While some have gone budget and stripped things back to a minimum, they’re still seeing margins while quad-stitching and having things made with re-inforcing strips, heavy duty anchors and other great workman-ship. This seems to come at the cost of foreign labor, but the results are undeniable.

They’re not just interested in raising standards for manufacturing either, but also for safety. They could get away with adult walls being 1.8 meters high, but they go for 1.9 meters. They ensure everything is inspected by an RPII inspector and put a tag on it (assuming it meets the requirements of the inspection), little extras above and beyond the minimum. This wasn’t inconsistent across the different factories they import from, either. Regardless of where the unit came from, it was made to their high standard; It makes TripleA a very safe pair of hands to get your import from, without the headache and worry of doing it blindfolded yourself as small-fry.

This was a great opportunity to see some fantastic big equipment. I strongly encourage people to watch the video below, I can’t possibly put into words how cool some of the stuff was. There was one item I had never even heard of before, let alone seen!

What was clear though, was that there was some very well priced units, that have been designed with a holistic view from a manufacturer, hirer and repair company.

Bouncy Castle Network

It was excellent to see the BCN team at the show. As the industry leader for bouncy castle hire website providers and the biggest force in the market, it legitimized the event. We was fortunate enough to have two of BCN’s most recognizable names at the show, both Aftab as well as Eddie, who was able to provide more time with each customer.

I was fortunate to be present to hear a very touching story about how one company had grown 800% since joining BCN, and while it can’t all be attributed to the platform, it was a catalyst that changed their families lives for the better.

It was also very sad to hear from one person at the show who told me that they would like to speak out more about how they have had a great experience with BCN, but all to often they see that a positive post quickly degrades into something distasteful.

I’m pretty sure that as these shows grow, so will BCN’s presence at them. It was missing the big reveal and demonstration of cool new secret thing, but what it did provide was access to two successful businessmen that are ingrained in the industry, time to talk with them, understand how they can help your business grow and time for them to listen to you about your business and what you need to become even more successful. These are guys that understand business plans, profit and loss, tax returns etc, but also understand the market, where it’s heading and have felt the weight of a bouncy castle on a sack trolley!

AirQuee

Airquee

It was refreshing being able to see all of Airquee’s equipment, without it being all bunched up and not being able to get to it (with the exception of the hungry hippo game).

Kerry was kind enough to provide me a walk-round and was keen to answer any questions. It definitely felt a lot more personal.

I personally wanted to walk away with two front slide combos from their e-range, but sadly I was too late, they had all been sold.

With the saving on space they was able to offer slightly better deals than I have seen before and it was excellent to be able to take the time to see the e-range up-close. Something I hadn’t given too much time previously.

One thing I particularly liked was the step tied into the slide base on the front slide combo, instead of a free-standing step that’s too small to distribute air when stepped on (causing grounding).

The pink unicorn front slide combo bouncy castle was on display and looking terrific! Unicorns are a big hit and this is a crowd puller and party pleaser. At £2,500 it wasn’t priced to shift in huge volume, but there’s certainly a place in the market for it.

The minion theme that they acquired the license for last year was on display and the price tag for these licensed products isn’t anywhere near what I thought they would be.

I asked a very direct question regarding copyright and received a very honest answer.

I questioned why a customer should purchase a licensed product that comes with an increased cost (although commensurable and affordable) when these licensed products have been on the market for so long, but yet so many operators still compete with unlicensed products. What’s the incentive for them to fight that uphill battle? That may seem unfair, asking Airquee to justify why someone should do the right thing, but in an industry where this issue is so wide-spread, it’s a big ask when no repercussions are visible.

The honest reply was that Airquee do not believe it’s in their interest to pursue infringements. The back-lash and reputational damage they would receive are too significant.

However, Kerry did mention that the license owner themselves do respond when a complaint is made, and this has happened in areas saturated with infringing products.

Although the main selling point is peace of mind. Just because it’s not wide-spread prosecutions occurring right now, it doesn’t mean that it will never come.

I could have also been allowing my imagination run wild, but I also got the slightest whiff of a mention of Airquee and Disney. If that happened, then that license holder may behave very differently and have a different stance on protecting their customers investment. That was never confirmed though, so take it for what it’s worth.

I feel like I suffered a little for going on the Monday. Airquee sold a lot of stock that was taken away on the Saturday and Sunday. There was still lots of lovely equipment to view, but I am positive that at the next show they will come strong-armed with lots more!

Summary

I’d conclude by saying that I had a great time. It was well worth going to and considering the lack of lead time before the show, they put on a great effort and I hope it was a successful trial for them, because I sure want to go back to another one.

It was clear that it was a dummy run, a trial… Considering that though, if you didn’t make it to this one, then I would strongly encourage you to attend the second one. There was some really good savings to be had, and you learn more about the manufacturer, who you’re dealing with and how they operate. There was some real transparency and very honest answers, surprisingly honest and open, knowing full well it would be end up in this review.

With future shows looking likely, I look forward to going to the next one, which will no doubt be bigger and better!

I strongly encourage you to take a look at the video below, it shows a lot of close-up detail that people with a keen eye will spot, and also shows off some of the varied stock and equipment that was on display!