ot many operators can say they have driven their trucks
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into Red Square in Moscow. Chris Eames says he was one of the first men to do that for over 50 years. He an is team, including his wife and co-driver Diana, were in Moscow setting up the staging for a classical music concert. This was by no means an unusual job for the company.
So what made a man who had always planned to become a marine biologist become a specialist exhibitions mover? "I'd been working for another exhibition firm and I suppose I saw a gap in the market and went for it," he says.
Today Barnes, with help from his brother Mike, takes exhibitions and concerts all over Europe and further afield when required. He always drives one of the trucks himself to make sure everything goes to plan and as a result spends up to five months of the year away. "I like to keep up with the other drivers and enjoy the driving," he says. "Besides, there is nothing like being there in person to make sure it all gets done correctly"
Film festival
Typical jobs include setting up stands at the Cannes film festival, Frankfurt book fair and small one or two-truck tours with both classical or rock groups. They regularly travel to Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, France and Germany and have recently started air freighting shows to Hong Kong.
He points to the fact that traditional haulage companies weren't really offering the service that clients setting up expensive stands required. "If you've got 20 guys waiting to put up the stand and the truck shows up six hours late, it can get very expensive," he says.
Eames makes a big thing about being punctual. He will quite often double-man his trucks and pick up the bill himself rather than risk being late. "We spend a lot on maintaining the vehicles and always try to build enough slack into the schedule to cope with all eventualities such as breakdowns and border delays."
Concerts
Although exhibition work accounts for the majority of their time, about 40% of Barnes' turnover comes from concerts. The firm shares an office building with giant concert specialist Edwin Shirley and will take on work through that connection. James Taylor Quartet, Alan Price, Boo Radleys and the enchantingly entitled World of Saxon have all been carried by Eames. The company also carries antiques and paintings as well as grand pianos.
Chris Eames puts down part of his success to the team. Brother Mike mans the office while he is away and they communicate at the end of most days by computer. The team of proven drivers has slowly been built as the business has grown.
"We can spend long periods of time together," he points out, "so it's important we all get on," His wife Diana only recently stopped driving when they realised their two-year-old son had worked out where the handbrake was. He now stays at home.