Alan Jenkins confidently told Dorset Biz News his exhibition company would survive despite his sector being one of the worst affected by the pandemic – and it has.

The businessman, pictured left, who founded Quadrant2Design with his wife, Elizabeth, in November 1999, spoke to us in April 2020.

It was within a fortnight of the first lockdown taking effect with trade and business shows and exhibitions being abandoned left, right and centre.

Little did he know then that it would be over 14 months before live shows started to recommence.

His confidence that the company would survive was due to the fact that it had no credit accounts and was not owed any money by clients.

The business also owned the freehold of its 12,500 sq ft site in Poole and original home in Wareham.

Above all, though, Quadrant2Design had built up cash reserves of upwards of £1m and even taken the decision to invest in gold in 2018.

Not that the company, which designs and builds more than 600 stands a year, was unaffected.

The cancellation of all live shows hit the business hard.

It managed to survive by cutting costs and reducing in size to a skeleton staff.

But now the economy is opening up again, and live shows are set to recommence, business is once again booming and it is hiring new staff to cope with the increased demand.

Alan said: “Covid hit our industry hard, many of our competitors have gone under.

“We were fortunate enough to have the resources to weather the storm.

“It shows our customers that we are a secure, reliable business they can depend upon, and we can’t wait to get back to live shows.”

Quadrant2Design has now launched a new website after deciding it was time for a revamp.

Alan said: “We’d had the old website for a number of years so the time had come to refresh it to reflect our new branding and bring it up to date.”

The new site, which can be found here, features a cleaner, stripped back design.

It contains information on the business, the stands it builds and exhibiting as a whole.

Also on the website are examples of the company’s work.

Customers are offered a free redesign of their stand for every show they attend.

And there are a number of testimonials from happy clients who have benefited from the company’s store and rebuild option, aimed at taking the stress out of exhibiting.