Partyspace delivers nineteen stretch tents to Center Parcs for unique Summer hot spots
The article intro may seem a bit redundant, except perhaps to those from another planet who don’t know what Center Parcs is. In short: Center Parcs is the European market leader for nearby holidays. With its 26 Center Parcs in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France and two Sunparks in Belgium, they offer holidays in harmony with nature including a wide range of activities, restaurants and facilities, such as the water paradise Aqua Mundo.
Summer hot spots are born
“During and after COVID times, as for many other organisations, we had to be creative and adapt our range of activities, which resulted in more outdoor activities and in smaller groups”, explains Ruud Rerink, product director at Center Parcs. The guests appreciated this adapted program, so Center Parcs decided to go all out for this concept. This way, the Summer hot spots saw the light of day: an outdoor location for activities was created in different parks, all of them with a stretch tent as an eye catcher.
“We opted for the stretch tent because it has a beautiful look but it also is of very high quality”, Ruud clarifies. “Thanks to the material the tents are made of, they build a harmonious setting with the natural environment in which they are installed. However they are still recognisable. This choice was a no-brainer.”
Above & Beyond enters the picture
The request was sent out by the purchase department of Center Parcs to suppliers from all over Europe. “Above & Beyond turned out to be one of the few parties that could comply with our request. Above & Beyond could meet our expectations and did convince us with the correct pricing and with the quality of the tents”, says Alain Petitjean, Senior Procurement Manager at Center Parcs.
Strict national and international legislation
The choice for the stretch tents may have been self-explanatory, the request itself by contrast was absolutely not. Ruud elaborates. “It was crucial to us that the tents could be delivered and installed in all parks in Europe in an extremely short period of time. Moreover, the tents had to be high quality and flexible in shape. Every setting is different after all. Last but not least, they had to be in accordance with all international and national legislation. Putting it mildly: this was a tough challenge.”
The scope of the project was of that sort that it was impossible to realise by one single party within the foreseen time frame. In the first place, Bonga Stretch Tents scaled up the production in order to have all tents, nineteen in total, ready on time. Secondly, the installation of the tents was divided by two companies: the seven tents in six parks in The Netherlands were installed by the Dutch company Stretchtent-Huren.nl. The five tents on just as many locations in Belgium and the seven tents on five locations in Germany were installed by Philip Vandenbussche from Star Tent, one of Above & Beyond’s partners.
A dream collaboration
All parties involved strongly agree: this project was a fine piece of cross-border and cross-company team work. “The agreements and in particular the tight schedule were observed, which allowed us to start the summer season with the summer hot spots in the best possible way”, says Ruud with high praise. “The collaboration between all parties involved went without a hitch and thanks to the clear and professional preparatory communication, the responsible persons on the spot were well-informed and everything could go according to plan.”
Afterwards we asked Ruud to point out some points of improvement concerning our collaboration. Nobody is perfect after all. However, he immediately took the edge of this statement. “We highly appreciate that Above & Beyond thought along with us so well. They understood our needs and left no stone unturned to complete this project successfully. A lot of companies can learn from them. We are happy to refer anyone who asks us how we managed to pull this off to Above & Beyond.”
