CASE STUDY

THE GREAT RUN COMPANY

Situation

The Great Run Company is the UKs biggest mass participation sport business, every year they organise 12 events with 8 of these held in major cities. 250,000 people are inspired to participate with £24m raised for a huge range of charities both big and small.

Task

Purvis Marquees have worked alongside the Great Run Company for many years with our involvement in The Great North Run (South Shields), The Great Scottish Run (Glasgow), The Great Scottish Swim (Loch Lomond), The Great Winter Run (Edinburgh) and the new Great Stirling Castle Run.

Action

To provide a wide range of event structures and equipment to service each of their events with most events being held in major city centres and live venues such as parks. Some of the structures and finishes over the years have been customised with brand visibility being key. Our ability to accommodate tight build schedules on often complex multi marquee events and then removal of structures behind the live event course.

Result

A long standing relationship with one of the UKs largest and most renowned names in charity sports events. Providing large amounts of structures and services for multiple events across Scotland and the North of England.

The Great Run Company is the UKs biggest mass participation sport business. Every year we inspire over 250,000 people to take part in events and campaigns that we develop and operate under the The Great Run and The Great Swim brands. We Operate 12 events, each with a supporting children’s event, in 8 major conurbation cities, with a total of 250,000 participant, cheered on by 650,000 supporters and watched live on TV by an audience of 6 million+ viewers. Our events help to facilitate £24m in fundraising for a huge range of charities, big and small.

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The Great Run Company are the UKs largest charity sports event business operator and developer running 12 large events with 8 of these being in major cities around the UK.

Purvis Marquees have worked alongside The Great Run Company for many years building up a trusted relationship and reliable service to all of their northern events. Most of their charity sporting events are held in live sites within major city centres so come with complex builds and site conditions. Many of the structures over the years have been customised with brand visibility being key. Working closely with many large sponsors such as Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale bank with close support of many of the UKs best known charities such as Mental Health UK and Macmillan Cancer.

Each event requires multiple structures both at the main event hub locations and around the course. Purvis Marquees work to strict deadlines during the builds with great care on sites both to health & safety as many sites are live to the public and care to the ground as many are city parks and streets. Some events require multiple start locations for different runs with venues being adapted for a range of races to take place at different times or over different days. The dismantle of first aid or service structures around the course takes place straight after the race passes through. The main event hub is then often part dismantled straight after the event to get the dismantle well on and keep site costs down.

Wind management and event safety have always been key to our company. As standard we have 24-hour emergency cover on all our contracts and our wind management plan means that we install additional anchorage to our marquees before high winds hit and will have experienced crew on site to ensure there are no issues. This attitude is something that The Great Run Company have become very used to receiving every year which provides peace of mind.

The largest of The Great Run Companies events is the Great North Run in South Shields with the supply of 47 x 6m pagodas and nearly 100m of 6m clearspan frames built in 2 days along with the recent joint venture to work with GL Events to support this large event.

Large and complex multi events are what Purvis Marquees and their team excel at building trusted and long-standing relationships with clients as a one stop shop for equipment and solutions on large sports events.