Events company Stagekings uses COVID to springboard new business

With the live event and festival industry halted since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, major events staging company Stagekings to the opportunity to begin constructing home office furniture as a means to continue survival the global pandemic.

One year on, the Sydney-based company has successfully pivoted and is set to launch a range of designer home furniture.

At a time when Victorian event industry suppliers and carnival ride operators encircled the state Parliament in Mlebourne with their vehicles to protest the lack of support for event suppliers, it’s a much-needed good news story.

In March 2020, Stagekings went from producing sets for the country’s biggest events to losing 98% of their business after the government put restrictions on mass gatherings in the wake of COVID-19.

Their survival plan took them from manufacturing some of the country’s best-known sets and stages (like the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, Edinburgh Castle for the Military Tattoo and Ninja Warrior set) to manufacturing affordable pop-up furniture for Australia’s new stay-at-home workforce.

They had the right team, tools and equipment for the job and in a single day, they designed a desk, which became the key offering of their new brand, IsoKing.

The live events and festivals sector were one of hardest-hit industries, so much so that groups are still calling for the creation of an Event Industry Taskforce to build lifelines amid widespread job losses.

Determined to not let the pandemic sink their business, Managing Director Jeremy Fleming and Designer Mick Jessop partnered to see IsoKing’s range become an instant hit. Within four weeks, they sold 4,500 pieces of furniture, more than doubled their staff and saved the company financial ruin.

A year later, it’s possibly Australia’s most successful COVID-19 pivot story, having sold an incredible 35,000 pieces of furniture, and launching IsoKing At Home - a new ultra-modern furniture range available online.

Fleming explains “the IsoKing desk is what we thought would save us when COVID hit, or at least keep us busy… and it certainly did that.

“With restrictions easing, the set design and production work for Stagekings has come back but IsoKing saved us and turned into a really viable long-term business that we love working on.”

Not forgetting their roots in the live entertainment industry, IsoKing donates a percentage of all furniture sold towards Support Act’s COVID-19 Emergency Appeal and has raised $90,000 for music industry workers affected by the pandemic.

Fleming added “many of the 70 new staff we hired to produce IsoKing and the new At Home range have come from the live events industry and needed work when there was none.

“So when we started IsoKing we did so with the goal to support the industry in as many ways as we could,” said Fleming.

For more information on IsoKing At Home range visit www.isoking.com.au

Image: Jeremy Fleming and Mick Jessop with furniture from the IsoKing At Home range.