Know where you came from.

Every week, the administrative team at O'Neil has a staff meeting during lunch to discuss upcoming jobs, challenges we might face, or new opportunities that we are working on. This week,  Marianne Ritchey, one of the original owners of O'Neil Tents, stopped in.

As we sat and discussed business, I couldn't help but think about the great start Marianne and her husband Jim gave O'Neil when they took over operations. Jim (called doc by just about everyone) and Marianne first became involved with the company as an investment, but later assumed control of operations when they realized the potential of the tent rental industry.

Early on, the company consisted of a small office in front of a 2,000 square feet of warehouse space. With a focus on festivals and fairs, O'Neil quickly earned our name as an up and coming player in the rental market. Over the years, O'Neil has built our reputation as a top event rental provider as well as our physical footprint. We now operate out of 5 warehouses in Canal Winchester with an onsite manufacturing facility.

I am the third generation in the Ritchey family to work for O'Neil Tents. While it is exciting to look towards the future of the company and all of the opportunities on the horizon. It is important for me to not forget where the business came from: Two people who wanted to provide high quality products and service to their customers.

While technology may change our equipment and how the company operates, the hall marks of quality products and services will always be the cornerstone of our operation.

- Mark Ritchey, Sales and Marketing Manager

Pickerington Violet Festival

The Pickerington Violet Festival is going on right now. O'Neil Tents crew leader Kyle Waller was recently featured in a piece by the Pickerington Times Sun as he was pounding stakes for one of the many pole tents at the festival. To read the story, please click here.

We are proud to take part in so many festivals around the central Ohio area. We enjoy helping the community celebrate and make lasting memories!

Gearing Up

Sailors call it the calm before the storm when the weather gets eerily calm but you know a rough patch is on the horizon. That's kind of where we are right now. We're staying consistently busy but getting ready to ramp up into the horizon of the summer.

On the slate for this week is the St. Matthews festival in Gahanna, the Jazz & Rib Festival in downtown Columbus, the Cleveland Browns training camp, and to ice the cake we've started setting up the Dublin Irish Festival (the largest event of its kind in the US). Next week is more of Irish Festival, MOPAR Nationals, as well as the Violet Festival in Pickerington, OH. I'm not even going to get into September (it gets messy, but messy in a good way).

Believe me, I'm not complaining. Its good doing all of these big jobs as well as the smaller residential parties during the summer. Its also a good feeling knowing that we have a team of experienced professionals to handle the pressure of the upcoming months.

Side note to this posting: We remodled our offices last year. A complete gut was completed by DJ Builders out of the London, OH. area. They did a fantastic job. I've posted some pictures to our Facebook account here.

Rent what you need, not what we have.

Often times, companies will push customers into certain products due to what they have in stock. While this makes some sense, in the fact that you can't sell what you don't have. It's not right for the customer. Customers should buy (or in our case rent) what they need, not what we have.

Talking a customer into a certain product because its the only one you have is wrong. Leading the customer to believe that they are getting exactly what they need, then delivering a product that does not meet expectations is dishonest.

For example, Mrs. Smith asks for a quote on her daughter's upcoming wedding reception. She tells me the number of expected guests, the details of how the event should be laid out and what style of tent she is looking for. I take all of those important details and tailor a solution customized to her needs.

Everything should be spaced appropriately so they don't run into a situation where Uncle Jim and Aunt Marianne aren't eating dinner on the dance floor. There will also be more than a half of a foot between the buffet and the edge of the tent to allow for traffic to flow through easily.

After laying out all of the appropriate space requirements on my CAD software, I then choose an appropriate tent size, not the other way around. I would never say, "The largest tent I have is 40'x60'. Now let's figure out how to cram everyone in." Sometimes, this means that the reception will cost a little more, but as they say, you pay for what you get.

Over the years, O'Neil Tents has been able to build our tent and rental inventory to include almost any possible tent size. This means that we don't have to push you into something because its the only one we have. We can look at what works best for you and your event and plan accordingly.

Customers: If you don't choose to rent with O'Neil, make sure you end up with what works best for you not what works best for the rental company. 

Time for Reflection

Graduation season has passed. We're seeing a couple of residual parties this weekend, but they are done for the most part. First, congratulations to all of the grads! Second, thank you all very much for choosing O'Neil Tents to provide your rental equipment needs.

Now that the craziness of the last three weeks has died down, we have had some time to reflect. While O'Neil does provide tents and party rentals for some of the Midwest's largest festivals, fairs and events, we cherish the opportunity to serve the families of the Columbus area. The last couple of weeks have been a fantastic reminder of a few key thoughts:

1. O'Neil is a business driven by the needs of our customers. While many graduation parties may include very similar elements (20 foot frame or pole tents, tables, chairs and linens), each is unique in their own way. The Jones family doesn't care that we've done about 200 parties similar to their's in the last 3 weeks, all they care about is that their party is as special as it can be for them. We respect this desire and try to focus our service accordingly.

2. Cleanliness of our equipment is one of the best ways to service each individual customer. Our wash crews were thrown into the crucible over the last couple of weeks. Needing to turn high levels of inventory over with relatively short lead times, means more operational strain. Consistent rain over the last 3 weeks added one more complication as nothing ruins a tent top faster than mud stains in the stitching and webbing. Because of our experience in tent rentals, we know to use tarps while taking down tents to protect them from stains and mud. Applying our experience in the simple things like using tarps positions us to not only serve our customers next week, but it also makes happy customers in one month and one years time.

3. Growing your business means pushing your operating capacity. While all of these graduation parties were going on, we also erected over 100 tents just for the Asian festival, wedding tents, the Park Street Festival, massive clearspan structures in Cleveland and countless other corporate functions. We're moving right into the Pride Parade in downtown Columbus, the Gahanna Jazz festival and setting up the Tattoo event at Wright Patterson Air Force Base all this week. That's quite a lot, and that's ok. We'll never know how much we can do and how good of an equipment rental company we can be without pushing ourselves. After the last couple of weeks, a little breather in the action is nice, but its good to know that we are capable of some pretty great things.

4. Without the right people in place, none of our recent successes would have been possible. Some of our delivery crew members have been with O'Neil for well over 10 years. Some have joined us in the last couple of months. No matter what the duration of experience is, each member is vitally important to our success. With a lot of training and solid operational support, our guys on the road are confident they have the skills necessary to accomplish any task presented. It is this confidence that our customers see. It is this confidence that leads to a job well done.

It has been a rough couple of weeks but they have shed light on what is truly important to our customers and how we can better give them what they expect.

Thanks again for reading the blog. Let us know what you think in the comments section. (Next week we'll be back to posting lots of awesome pictures of events O'Neil is working on. We promise.)

The Right Stuff

There is a lot that sets O'Neil Tents & Party Supplies apart as a tent rental company from our competition. We've previously discussed how our manufacturing capabilities give O'Neil a competitive advantage. This week, we started construction on an amazing project that, after a little reflection, we wouldn't have been able to do without our decades of experience.

We have come a long way from the early days of frame and pole tents at festivals to where we are now. Our most recent major project is the construction of a 30 meter clearspan and two 40' x 60' frame tents on the field of Ohio Stadium for the Make a Wish Foundation's Big Wish Gala. To say that this project is awesome is an understatement.

Back in the early 80's O'Neil Tents made the decision to get into the world of clearspan structure. At the time, this was a pretty risky venture. The only tents that our customers were renting were pole or frame tents. Looking at European trends, and preparing for the day that all tents would need to be inspected and permitted by the government made our a decision easier. Clearspan structures would be the wave of the future.

Luckily, this bet has paid off. More and more, State and Local governments are requiring safety inspections on tents over a certain size. Because clearspan structures are engineered to withstand wind and snow loads, they meet and exceed safety requirements. While other companies are scrambling to shift their inventory over to structures, O'Neil has been there and been doing that for over 20 years. 

Back to the work we're doing for the Make a Wish event. The structure for the Make a Wish event is 30 meters wide and 60 meters long. We custom manufactured clear panels and gable ends for the structure as well as installing solid white wall on the sides. The side wall was custom cut to marry up to the 7 large HVAC units used to heat and cool the structure.

The synthetic surface of the field was our main challenge for this job. Because we were not able to stake into the ground, we had large plates fabricated to hold 10,000 pound concrete blocks at each upright in order to meet engineering codes. Aside from the staking issue, there was constant rain for 3 days straight. Weather forced us to slow down the install to ensure that our crews were able to safely erect the heavy parts that go into a 30 meter structure. Again, experience tells us when to slow down and when to proceed full speed ahead.

The results of this project were amazing due to our experience, quality manufacturing, well maintained inventory, and partnership with a dozen other vendors. O'Neil is happy to have been a part of such an awe-inspiring job and we look forward to more like it in the future.

To view a complete photo gallery of the event set up, visit our facebook page by clicking here.

Off to the Races!

This past weekend, Churchill Downs hosted one of the oldest and most repected thoroughbred horse races in the world, the Kentucky Derby. People from all around the world flock to Louisville, Kentucky to witness the "fastest 2 minutes in sports". For those of us who couldn't make the trip to Churchill downs, there were several opportunities to view the races elsewhere. However, if you wanted to view the race in style, you were at Beulah Park in Grove City, Ohio.


Beulah Park is Ohio's first thoroughbred racing track, built in 1923. It was also the first track in Ohio to offer simulcast wagering on the Kentucky Derby. Each year Beulah Park hosts a derby party as a celebration for the end of their racing season. O'Neil Tents erects a 25 meter wide by 35 meter long clearspan structure right next to the track as a hospitality area for VIP's. O'Neil provides a tent for the buffet line attached to the main structure as well as the tables and chairs for patrons.

To make the experience one to remember, Beulah Park puts its VIP's right next to the track. Being 20 feet away from a thoroughbred horse as it races past you to the finish is an experience like any other. Rain or shine, Beulah wanted their patrons to be a part of that thrilling moment. O'Neil used clear wall for the side panels to keep everyone on top of the action. Luckily, the weather held off during the races and Beulah was able to unfasten the panels, creating open area between the structure and the track.

Whether their bets were winners or losers, everyone at Beulah park was treated to a one of a kind day of fun. Check out some more of our pictures from the day on our Facebook fan page by clicking here: Derby Pictures