Parksville Company Wins Small Business of the Year Award for Vancouver Island
Black & White Event Rentals owner Dave Willie with some of his vehicles
PARKSVILLE – Dave Willie knows the importance of having large tents.
As owner of Black & White Event Rentals in Parksville, large tents have been critical to the company’s journey through the Covid Pandemic, which was an existential threat to many businesses in the hospitality industry.
Black & White Event Rentals not only made it through, but they were named Small Business of the Year at the 2023 MNP LLP Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards in January in Victoria.
“It was wonderful to win the award, because it was recognition from peers for what we’ve done and survived,” Willie says. “You get to the point where you need to just push through. Like other businesses, we’ve come through some difficult times for the industry, but we’ve managed to find ways to maintain and also pivot into different things.”
Over the company’s 30 years in business, it has grown from basic 20 x 20 foot marquee tents and party supplies, to being home to the largest tent inventory on Vancouver Island. By expanding the business years ago to include trade show booth materials and electrical equipment, to recently leading the way with deluxe portable washroom trailers, Black & White Event Rentals has moved with the demands of the business, and has a penchant for reading their market.
Black & White Event Rentals tent at a wedding celebration
“We were helping VIHA (now Island Health) up and down Vancouver Island when Covid hit the lock-down stage, with tents for more of a triage set-up where they could assess people for their conditions,” he recalls, adding Black & White tents were set up all over the Gulf Islands, and in communities such as Gold River, Tahsis, Powell River and Saltspring Island.
“After that we offered solutions to restaurants that were wanting to expand their facilities in order to maintain distance requirements, outdoor dining and outdoor patios in parking lots,” he notes. “Other companies were having lunch rooms built and were looking for ways to enlarge their facilities for distancing, and some chose to put units outside.”
Black & White Event Rentals offered a full time solution to Windsor Plywood when their Saltspring Island location was sadly demolished due to fire. “We replaced their store with a 50 x 90 foot tent in their parking lot, and it became a temporary store that has been operating for 18 months, through all weather conditions.”
Black & White tents feature engineered jumbo J-trac units that have a snow load capacity. Willie notes one Parksville business has one of their tents up for two years now.
Black & White Event Rentals’ deluxe washroom toilets
“The great thing about jumbo trac is they are like a giant Meccano set where all the pieces are interchangeable,” he states. “The tents are built to have 20 feet in height, and with their beams we can do 20, 30, 40 or 50 feet in width. As for the length, it can be just about anything. We can build a 30 x 160 or 40 x 80 foot tent, it all depends on the application, location and customer needs.”
Over half of Black & White’s business is south of the Malahat, and they also do select projects on the lower mainland.
“We’ve set up tents at UBC, and we did a wedding in Pemberton last year,” he says. “We’ll take contract work off the Island, but it’s really expensive for the client. It doesn’t happen very often.”
The movie and film production industry has provided Black & White Event Rentals with interesting opportunities over the years, one of which is the new addition of deluxe washroom trailers.
“People do not want 100 wedding or event guests using their WC facilities indoors (especially since Covid), so the washroom trailers are a natural ‘add-on’ to tent rentals,” he says. “Being air conditioned is just icing on the cake. These are such a hit that we are doubling our fleet this year.”
Businesses waiting for new facilities or additional space in existing buildings can expand immediately by using tents.
“It all comes down to temporary structures and what the city’s bylaws dictate,” he states. “Some communities allow them within a certain time frame, some have no time attached. Some have to be staked in, as opposed to not being completely set in concrete. Then they are ruled as a temporary structure.
“Putting structure tents up always requires some hold down feature, such as staking, tethers or ballasting, to comply with whatever code applies. We are very careful to work within all existing regulations.”
Like any owner, Willie is pleased to see business returning to “normal” following the pandemic. Some larger properties viewed the pandemic as an opportunity for renovations and upgrades, re-investing for the future.
“Those are the smart ones, and they have been busy (since the pandemic ended),” he notes. “They found ways to make it through.”
Willie had been through tough times before, most notably the 20-plus percent interest rates of the early 1980’s, and the 2008 recession. Lessons learned then serve him well now.
“Each generation has something that they reflect on and often make decisions based on those experiences,” he muses. “My parents had World War II, their parents had the great depression, and I feel it is similar for those of us that survived the 80’s, 2008’s troubled times, and the Covid Pandemic. Obviously nothing compares with their experiences, but it still gives us pause for thought.
“I’m a firm believer that you have to sit back and ask ‘Am I in this for the long haul, or am I going to get out?’ And I always make the decision to re-invest,” he adds. “That’s why we’ve added high-end washroom trailers, larger tents and other specialty items that make us different within our industry. Re-invest and not pull back. I think that’s the key.”
By Mark MacDonald, Business Examiner