Insight PST 50th Anniversary
was suddenly very weak and in all honesty I was on the verge of closing the factory. Having considered all my options, I decided to fill the van once more, as I did at that first ICE, and embark on the biggest gaming road trip I could undertake around Europe. It was one of the best business decisions I ever made.
“Te orders came in from Germany, France, Belgium and Te Netherlands. Tey came in from all over the continent and suddenly European casinos were holding the business up. We also managed to strike deals with other manufacturers taking us all over the United States, Australia, Macau, Vietnam and Cambodia,” stated Mr. Treharne.
At this time the company’s export business accounted for 70 per cent of its sales. PST won the Export Achievement Award at a ceremony held at the Newcastle Gateshead Hilton in 2010. Te British casino industry was back on its feet by 2011 with Genting, Aspers and Grosvenor all helping drive PST’s business forward, but the company’s customer based had changed forever. Mr Treharne explained: “Despite business not dropping off with foreign gaming companies, export now only accounts for 35 per cent of the business.”
In 2006, Mr Treharne’s son Gareth joined the business to manage the factory. By 2008 he was Operations Director.
blackjack table. Several operators said to me that if I could reduce the size of the chair, but keep it to the high standard of the American’s there could be a market for me. PSG had invested in automated, numerically operated bending machinery. Tey were in complete control over every part of the manufacturing process. Tis really was the beginning of everything for PSG in the casino industry in the UK and soon we were supplying everyone.”
Te playing field changed again in 1997 when PSG’s then owners approached Mr Trehrane to see if he wanted to buy the company whose products he was selling.
“Tey came in with a price that I couldn’t refuse,” Mr Trehrane explained. “Te price was low because the company was solely focussed on manufacturing. It had no sales team and no customer base. All it had was contracts for sales agents to sell into various different markets. Te purchase was completed in 1998 and in no time the company had been transformed into one supplying working men’s clubs to one that supplied all the best casinos in the UK. Our comfort and durability set us apart.”
Next came the export side. In 1998 the company attended its first foreign show taking part in IMA in Frankfurt. Te orders flooded in for the street market in Germany. Te company rebranded, still using his former business partners’ initials, but evolving to become Prestige Seating Technologies. Te company designed chair after chair for the gaming industry bringing it
mainstay solutions such as Te Oxford Chair, Te Cambridge Chair, Te Cosmopolitan Love Seat, Te Vegas Collection as well as terminology such as memory return swivel and the self-levelling, self-return gas spring.
Te skill set of the local labour force, brought up on decades of building ships in the dockyards, lent itself perfectly to PST. Mr Treharne explained. “Being based in the former ‘shipyard county’ meant there was an abundance of extremely skilled workers so we could easily grow our workforce as our order books filled up.
“Every material we use we source ourselves and every procedure in the entire manufacturing process from cutting, shaping, bending, welding, chroming and upholstery takes place in-house. We’re in control of everything so can ensure everything is done to the highest quality. It also means we’re not limited to anything when it comes to the design of bespoke furniture. We can, for example, provide bases of any size for our stool range. Our lead time is just three weeks for bespoke furniture.”
With staffing levels reaching 35, the company then faced perhaps its biggest challenge; the recession of 2008.
Mr Treharne said: “Suddenly the big UK operators, upon whom we had become so reliant on for business, weren’t buying at the same rate. Tey weren’t opening as many new casinos. Te supply side of the gaming business was hit hard, but particularly the furniture side. Te pound
“Gareth has brought a finesse to the company,” Mr Treharne explained. “He has overseen our move into manufacturing blackjack, poker and punto banco tables, securing deals with Te Hippodrome, Genting, A&S Leisure and Poker Stars. We moved into new chair markets in the UK too. Driven by the surge in popularity of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, we entered the Licensed Betting Office market.
“Over the last five years we have grown to now supply 55 per cent of the market, including BetFred, Coral, Boyle Sports and Jennings. We’ve moved into the leisure sector with deals to supply McDonalds, Revolution Bar, Beer Kellar and Frankie and Benny’s in various parts of the UK. But the casino market is still our main market.”
Te company recently appointed Andrew Davies as Business Development Director looking at a portfolio of products and new market opportunities for PST. “We’re currently working on two huge products, one market related and one product related,” Mr Treharne said. “I can’t reveal anything about the product we’re looking at manufacturing at this stage, but in terms of market news, we’re in discussions with local partners to replicate our manufacturing plant in South Shields in China, so that we can supply the Asian market to the same extent that we supply Europe.”
If that comes off, it’s probably fair to say that PST will be in even better shape when it turns 100-years-old.
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM P49
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