Rumour has it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have all heard rumblings for some time that Paul Bronfman\nhad ubiquitous Canadian lighting and grip rental company William F White up for\nsale. Now the rumour is, WfW has been\nbought by equipment rental company Sunbelt Rentals. Sunbelt is a principal subsidiary of Ashtead\nGroup, a UK owned company. Like all such\nmatters, the deal isn\u2019t done until the ink is dry but, for now, that\u2019s the\nstory and all my sources are sticking to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To understand what is happening in Canada, we need to take a\nlook at how the film business has evolved with regard to equipment providers\nand studios. If you have been following,\nthe most important thing that has changed, in my mind, is the takeover of small,\nsuccessful, locally run Canadian companies by large foreign interests. In most cases that has been good for those\nbought out, as well as the staff who remained. Mostly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until this announcement, the two biggest providers of space and equipment to film were WfW and Sim\nInternational. Both of these companies\nhad a national presence, primarily in Vancouver and Toronto, and could handle\nshows of any size. Sim\u2019s lighting and grip rentals used to be Production Services\n(PS) and little has changed there. The\npeople running PS, including President Eleanor O\u2019Connor and VP Jeff Ramsay, are\nstill in place. In the past couple of years, Sim and WfW have experienced relative success at something\nentrepreneurs in Canada have been attempting for decades. That is, to be the \u201cone stop\u201d solution for\nfilm customers. The goal was, to be more like a Los Angeles studio and provide\nmost all of the equipment needed to make a movie, plus appropriate studio\nspace. They are the only two companies that\nhave most of this comprehensive offering, as well as a Canada-wide\npresence. Each has a large US presence,\nalso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunbelt entered the scene in the summer of 2015 by buying a\nsmall lift and construction rental company called GWG in Vancouver. I was hired to build their film division and\nthe first film-only rental location in Coquitlam, near what became the Sunbelt\nHeadquarters. I had previously been VP\nof Film for WesternOne which was absorbed by United Rentals (UR) late last year.\nI was a consultant for UR at the time. \nIt is unclear if United will continue to operate WesternOne as a film\nbranch, although staff there will tell you they are 100% committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By July 2017, I had been promoted at Sunbelt and we had\nbuilt 27 branches in western Canada. It was then that Sunbelt purchased\nContractor\u2019s Rental Supply (CRS) in eastern Canada which tripled Sunbelt\u2019s size\nto approximately 85 locations of various size and gave Sunbelt the Canada-wide\npresence it had been aiming for. With\nregard to film, Sunbelt was always looking to expand their impact right across\nthe country. With the purchase of\nWilliam F White, Sunbelt becomes a competitor of Sim International, as the one-stop\nsolution provider for film all across Canada. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n To date, Sunbelt has not had much success with film, except\nin Vancouver. Attempts were made in Atlanta and Los Angeles but neither\nthrived. Herc Entertainment still dominates the lift rental business in the US,\nwhile there are several other lighting and grip companies down south such as,\nCinelease and Manhattan Beach Studios (MBS) both of which have explored and\nmade forays into Canada. Of course, LA also has the major one-stop studios\nParamount, Sony, Disney, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With regard to WfW and Sim in Canada, prospects for success are\ngood. There is enough business for all, right now. Business should not change\ndramatically. Both Sim and WfW have\nstudio space, lighting and grip and other gear to rent. There are a few differences. For example, WfW does not have Post Production\nServices and Sim does not have lifts… for now. My advice to both is, the rental\/studio business\nfor film is a service business, as you know. As Jack Welch is quoted as often\nsaying, \u201cthe team with the best players, wins\u201d so, they should both put\nconsiderable thought into keeping their key staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitch Kosterman, Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email: Editor@yvrproductionpulse.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rumour has it… We have all heard rumblings for some time that Paul Bronfman had ubiquitous Canadian lighting and grip rental company William F White up for sale. Now the rumour is, WfW has been bought by equipment rental company Sunbelt Rentals. Sunbelt is a principal subsidiary of Ashtead Group, a UK owned company. Like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"2019-11-27","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"series":[107],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","series-vancouver-production-pulse","entry","has-media"],"episode_featured_image":"http:\/\/yvrproductionpulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lighting-cables.jpg","episode_player_image":"http:\/\/yvrproductionpulse.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"castbox":{"key":"castbox","url":"","label":"CastBox","class":"castbox","icon":"castbox.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"pandora":{"key":"pandora","url":"","label":"Pandora","class":"pandora","icon":"pandora.png"},"patreon":{"key":"patreon","url":"","label":"Patreon","class":"patreon","icon":"patreon.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"},"iheartradio":{"key":"iheartradio","url":"","label":"iHeartRadio","class":"iheartradio","icon":"iheartradio.png"},"itunes":{"key":"itunes","url":"","label":"iTunes","class":"itunes","icon":"itunes.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"http:\/\/yvrproductionpulse.com\/feed\/podcast\/vancouver-production-pulse","embedCode":"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sunbelt Buys William F White?<\/a><\/blockquote>