Cavendish Group celebrates 30th anniversary

Events and hospitality agency Cavendish Group celebrates its 30th Anniversary this month and to commemorate the milestone it will run a string of events to take place over the next year as thanks to clients.  
 
This month the agency took a handful of clients to see the new musical ‘Rock of Ages’ in London’s West End and a wine-tasting experience aboard the EDF Energy London Eye with representatives from investment banking firms, fund management consultancies and legal firms in attendance.
 
Cavendish Group Chairman Jim Bignal said the secret of their success was “staying relevant in today’s market”. He said Cavendish was the first agency in the hospitality industry to take a stand against black market tickets and to advocate the buying and selling of official hospitality packages.
 
“In the 80s buying from the black market was commonplace but highly risky,” Bignal added. “We took a stand in a bid to regulate ticketing and ensure clients got exactly what they wanted.”
 
Bignal was one of the founders of the Corporate Hospitality Association in 1989 (now part of Eventia).
 
By advocating the buying and selling of official hospitality packages and ensuring they only dealt on those terms, Cavendish Group went on to win the Rugby World Cup official hospitality bid in 1999, hosted by Wales, where they sold 38,000 packages.
 
After this, Cavendish was appointed an official agent to sell packages for the Millennium Dome. This paved the way for Cavendish to win the Rugby World Cup bid in 2003 in Australia where they upped their previous score from 1999 to sell some 54,000 hospitality packages. Cavendish also won the bid to sell hospitality at ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007 to the tune of 28,000 visitors as well as building a Pharaohs’ Palace adjacent to the Tutankhamun Exhibition, which ran from 2007-8 with 11,000 attendees again at The O2.
 
In November Cavendish was appointed as the Diamond Jubilee Pageant 2012 official agent.
 
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Photo: Directors Chris Bruton and Jim Bignal.