Events Under Canvas owner at Capel St Mary plans to expand

She and her Events Under Canvas team at Capel St Mary travelled more than 1,600 miles to erect a tipi at the ashen toe-end of Italy after a "bizarre inquiry from Sicily", she says.

Undeterred by the distance and the terrain, the team packed their bags and headed off to help create an forgettable corporate party for 50 people. "It was a red letter day gone crazy," she recalls.

The ex-Orwell High pupil is no stranger to challenges. She started her working life on telesales in her home town of  Felixstowe, then satisified her wanderlust by becoming a holiday rep. She went on to launch a holiday staff recruitment business.

Aged 27, she moved to Ipswich and worked for recruitment firm Pure, then secured a post at Ipswich Hospital.

She flew through the ranks and at the same time gained an Open University honours degree in leadership and management.

"I'm quite good at cutting through bureaucracy and getting things done," she explains. "I knew I was good at business but I didn't know in what field at all. I was waiting for an opportunity to come along."

It was this talent - and her considerably organisational and financial skillset - which led to her setting up her own business. She was at home with her three-month-old son, but realised she wasn't cut out to be a stay-at-home mum.

Restless and full of energy - and having gone to an event held in a tipi - she started to think that there was a gap in the market for a business such as hers.

She joined forces with a business partner - bought out after 18 months - and ordered three tipis. This moved up to five in response to the initial demand. From then on, there was no looking back.

"There was no one offering these in East Anglia at all. I started talking to the people who made them, then all my other skills came together. I'm pretty good at finance and sales and marketing. I started getting bookings."

Financially it was a helpful model. Typically, customers ordered many months in advance, providing her with downpayments money to cushion the business as it grew.

The idea was to make temporary party and events venues - complete with fire pits and rustic furnishings - so people could celebrate their big events while enjoying the great outdoors.

In the UK where weather is variable it was a very attractive concept - and using the rather magical setting of a tipi set her offering apart from the more conventional wedding marquee. 

"It's a beautiful feel once you're in there," she says.

Jenna - who lives in East Bergholt - started the business in 2013. She rented a mushroom farm barn and ran the office from her front room. From there she moved to another rural site where she remained until 2017 when she secured the business's current home in Capel.

That was when part of a former county farm - a two-acre farmyard site and the farmhouse - went on the market. It had been split from the land many years previously after the county tenants retired. They retained their home and an operating base for a small mower repair enterprise.

Jenna snapped it up believing -rightly as it turned out - that it would provide her with the perfect base just off the A12 south of Ipswich and with sufficient space to lay out her tents.

She gained the planning permission and the units were upgraded to provide offices and some space to let to three commercial tenants while new sheds were added to provide storage and workspace.

Meanwhile in 2018 another 20-acre site a few miles up the road became available - which included a storage barn that she had previously rented for Events Under Canvas.

Having struggled to find suitable space in a rural setting, she saw the opportunity it presented and snapped it up too - creating new rural storage areas and workspaces for a range of businesses from an antiques company to a thatcher. The site is now home to 13 storage barns and a livery business.

One and a half years ago, Abby Clayton created Fields Farm Shop and Cafe on the site - complete with a menagerie of farm animals and a garden space. 

She now has two children - Max, nine, and Evie, eight - and a £2.1m turnover company based on a redundant farmyard employing 18 permanent and 60 seasonal workers. The business, she says, is growing at a rate of about 30% year-on-year.

In 2021, Events Under Canvas supplied its tents to 350 events, and in 2022 to 420.

She now has 25 tipis brought over from Sweden and nine sailcloth tents from the US. The quieter winter months provide time to clean and store them. Prices range from about £700 for a very small event to £35k for a very large one, with average fees around the £7k mark.

Even during the pandemic the business managed to turn some big negatives into positives. When lockdown was announced, they were at "rock bottom", she admits, so the announcement of furlough was a "massive relief".

With 125 weddings planned in 2020 - and deposits down - they spent a "rough couple of months" trying to juggle things and find a way through. "We promised everyone free postponement - most of them rebooked," she says. 

The firm started on a charity basis by helping in the community where spaces with sufficient social distancing were at a premium - then went on to work with hospitality businesses like pub-owning business the Chestnut Group to create viable spaces for them to operate in.

High society gigs followed. In 2021, EUC provided tipi accommodation for a big charity ball for Zara and Mike Tindall at the Belfry in Birmingham.

Some of Jenna's key competitors didn't find a way through the pandemic - which left gaps in the market as demand for such spaces grew.

Most of her rivals build their own tents then rent them but this is not a model which interests her. Instead she wants to focus on securing events and extending her reach.

"I think there's lots of potential for growth," she says.