Member Article

Newcastle stag and hen party sellers aim to create jobs

An entrepreneur who started his successful stag and hen party business “by accident” says he is ready to create North East jobs with a major refocusing of his brand.

Matthew Mavir, the managing director of Last Night of Freedom, says the Gateshead firm is on the cusp of major rebranding exercise which has “rewritten the business from top to bottom.”

The Saltmeadows Road-based outfit, which employs thirty staff, was set up in 1999 to supply stag and hen packages, including international trips as well as costumes, props and accessories from its warehouse.

LNOF provide all manner of stag and hen events from a night out in karting and a night out in Newcastle to bobsleighing and AK47 shooting in Latvia.

Matt’s aim for the business is to become the go-to resource for organising a stag or hen event, and part of the rebrand will develop the company’s online content - with videos and articles designed to attract party planners.

Matt told Bdaily: “LNOF really began as a website, and there was such demand that it ‘accidently’ grew into a business.

“We had a storming year in 2008, and the business was really so successful that it didn’t require much looking after. At that point we started to diversify into other business, which worked to a certain extent, but it meant the whole brand really suffered. Then the recession started to bite.

“Since 2011 we’ve been getting back to LNOF and the core of what we’re about. We’re aiming for our chunk of a £100 million market, and this rebranding will really set us up for that.”

Matt says the market is fierce but has seen competitors undergo similar refocusing efforts which have boosted their sales up to 50%.

He added: “Our business is very sales intensive. We need great customer service because organising a stag or hen do can be quite complicated - one person will only be able to do one night, someone else has an allergy, one of the party is pregnant - and so on.

“We take the hassle out of it on a number of fronts. One of the big problems for organisers is collecting cash. It’s a lot easier to have a company chasing cash, especially when it’s your friends, or friends of friends.”

Michael McMeekin of Arrow Sales Training has recently been working Matt and his team over recent weeks.

He said: “The fact that Last Night of Freedom have staff who’ve been there for up to 10 years is really testament to how they’ve developed a great workplace culture, and one that really rubs off on customers they interact with.”

Check out Last Night of Freedom here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .