Through our Meet the Tenant feature we hope you’re seeing the wide variety of businesses that partner with us here at the Millfields Trust. In previous blogs, we’ve introduced you to Ben Selby Counselling as well as Social Enterprise Mark CIC but today we’d like to introduce you to Animangapop Ltd.
What is your name, business name and how long have you been in business?
Hello, my name is Mark Bayliss, CEO of Animangapop Ltd. An events business that specialises in Japanese & Far East Asian POP-Culture. We have been doing events since 2014 but only recently incorporated when a business partner joined us.
When and why did you get a unit in the Millfields Trust?
We’ve been using Millfields for many years now. We first started with Pete at The Futon Shop allowing us to store some product is one of his units. As time went on, we realised we needed some extra space so luckily took on S1. We soon ran out of room in this one and when S2 came up for rent we took this as well.
What does an average day look like for your business?
In the events industry, there is no such thing as 9-5. Especially when we deal with international time zones and meetings at all times of the day and night. However, most typically the days during the week are used for event preparation, marketing, lots of promotion, website and social media updates and a host of other jobs which include anything from set design to booking guests for future events. On an actual event weekend, the team are at the HQ building early morning on Friday to load the van, (usually, there has been weeks of prep with the boxes to make sure all equipment is ready for loading on the van). Once loaded it’s off to one of many destinations around the UK. We are usually back late on a Sunday where we unload the van (sometimes until 1 am in the morning).
What types of challenges has your business faced in the past, present, and possibly in the future?
Covid obviously put a huge blow into the events industry. Luckily, most of our team have additional jobs so we were not personally affected that badly. We had also already announced to our following that 2020 was a ‘Gap Year’ after our 2020 show in Feb. That was lucky! (I guess?). Once Covid was out of the way we could all rev the gears up again and we stormed through 2022 with 4 x new shows. However, with the UK economy now struggling we have seen a dip in pre-sale tickets and a lot more ‘Last Minute’ purchases when people are able to check their finances. However, I think this will get better when we roll into 2024 and a bit more money is available in people’s pockets. To counter this, we put measures in place to make sure we were not leaving ourselves exposed to a hesitant customer base. So, we are looking forward to the future.
If you could have one thing right now for your business, what would it be?
More space!
What are your plans for 2023?
For the events business (and anyone in the events industry would know…) In our heads 2023 is finished. We are planning for 2024 now and booking venues. However, we have 3 x More Anime Conventions for 2023. They are ‘Cardiff’ in July, ‘Plymouth’ in August and ‘Brighton’ in November. These are alongside our business partners’ events of which we have an additional 5 to do.
What’s the best business advice you have ever received? Or, what is your business mantra?
Over the years we’ve been given loads of great business advice and it’s only when your back is against the wall you start remembering it and putting it into practice. Our business partner’s firm has made millions doing what we do on a MASS scale, so we do listen intensely when we chat. I suppose our mantra would be “We don’t do boring!” which pretty much sums up all my companies.
Where can people go to keep up to date with the latest news from Animangapop Ltd?
We regularly update our socials with announcements, event news and even some competitions which anybody can enter. Or you can head to our website to get tickets for our upcoming events and learn even more about what we do.
Website – www.animangapop.co.uk
Facebook – www.facebook.com/animangapop
Twitter – www.twitter.com/animangapopuk
Instagram – www.instagram.com/animangapopuk
If you’re a business in need of office space, light industrial units, or possibly just a meeting room, head over to Our Premises today. If you already know exactly what you need then please don’t hesitate to contact the team.