Bolesworth Castle – One day Events audit

ASSIGNMENT

As an established and well-known estate in Cheshire Nina Barbour approached GFG to undertake a ‘one day’ audit review of Bolesworth Castle events business.

Renowned since 2012 for hosting the four-day Bolesworth International Horse Show and more recently CarFest North which regular attracts in excess of 90k visitors over the three days, we were asked to review what additional Events could be arranged within this 7,000 acre landscaped estate.

As a venue that holds very complex and logistically challenging events each year Bolesworth unlike many other heritage properties, has a very structured organisation employing a diverse range of staff skill-sets from Marketing & Communications, Commercial, Event Operations to Finance.

As a result we were driven around the Estate including the 75 acre parkland as well as Bolesworth  Castle, the family home of the Barbour family. As part of the day’s audit which involved undertaking a detailed SWOT analysis with all the departmental ‘Heads’, we also visited the indoor Riding school including other dormant assets such as the family de-consecrated Church, the old School buildings and various Barns.

OUTCOMES

Following our visit, our Consultants produced a report which included a series of recommendations and suggested ‘next steps’ which could then broaden their share/exposure to the events market place.

These included: –

• Appreciating Bolesworth is renowned for organizing numerous annual ‘equine’ events and with international exterior Arena in place,  consider approaching event organiser’s who stage events including medieval jousting tournaments, national Carriage driving championships as a few examples

• With the Estate’s continued investment to improve the infrastructure and facilities to host CarFest North, Bolesworth has now established a strong association and public’s brand association with the ‘automotive sector’. With this in mind we strongly recommended the Events team approaches Classic Car Shows organisers, ‘Concourse’ events and established Agencies who organize ‘ride & drive’, car launches, etc.

• With increased Government pressure to reduce Co2 emissions and interest for ‘electric cars’, Bolesworth approach their current sponsors and investigates the idea of hosting a motorized electric event, similar to the ‘Fully Charged’ event held annually at Silverstone race track.

• Within the Estate, Bolesworth has developed a number of business and industrial parks which include some well-known SME’s companies. Some of these plc companies employ in excess of 100+ employees, we recommended a ‘pro-active’ sales approach by the Commercial team to assess demand for hosting events which ‘engage, reward and recognize staff’. e.g. – Training, Team building and Family fun days.