FAMILY AFFAIR IT’S NO AT DRPG AT DRPG

Dale Parmenter’s son and daughter work at creative communications company DRPG, the business he founded in 1980, but there was no special treatment when they joined

By Nicky Godding, Editor

How do you successfully join the family business? For Kathryn Willoughby (née Parmenter) and her brother Richard, you work your way up. No silver spoon, no direct management from dad. You graft.

And dad Dale, Kathryn and Richard wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, the siblings have a much greater appreciation of what their father has achieved because of it.

While Richard (33) is now Group Services Director and Kathryn (35) is

Head of Resources at the multi-millionpound turnover DRPG Group, Dale left it up to them whether they joined the Kidderminster-headquartered business. Kathryn joined as a catering assistant after finishing a degree in forensic science, and Richard tried out the army before being drawn to the technical side of the business.

But following in the footsteps of a true entrepreneur o ers its own challenges.

Dale Parmenter established DRPG in 1980. He’d always wanted to be a businessperson and tried various things, incuding market gardening. He dug up his parents’ garden to plant Christmas trees and grew tomatoes which he sold to the local safari park. He also sold other vegetables on the side of the road. Lesson one for the rookie entrepreneur –cultivating Christmas trees is rubbish for cashflow, they don’t grow fast.

By the time he was 15 he was helping a local DJ at weddings and parties, eventually buying the kit o him but had to employ someone until he was old enough to buy and drive his own van.

A lucky break from the BBC shows the way

Dale stumbled on media, film and communications by accident.

“My dad had a Super 8 cine camera, and the BBC was looking for young film-maker of the year, so I made a film about the bridge in my home town of Bewdley which had had its top stolen.”

His film, which had a cast of hundreds, was runner-up for the young film maker. Buoyed by early success, Dale bought more film kit and sound gear. He converted an outbuilding into a studio and began picking up commissions.

When the bank turned down his request for a loan to buy video equipment, he borrowed from family. To pay them back he went into the wedding market. “Sometimes we’d do four weddings a day, driving cash into the business.” (His early experience of Christmas tree cultivation had taught him a thing or two).”

Dale’s first corporate client was Brinton’s Carpets, for which he went on to make regular videos. And the next time he asked for a loan, the bank manager said yes.

Then he picked up Sodastream as a client and the business was away. By 1989 he’d moved into a small unit at Ikon Trading Estate, where DRPG now occupies more than four acres.

The company began producing videos for live events, and then producing live events themselves. Dale said: “I saw how we could control the supply chain, from the initial idea and concept to producing all the collateral to delivery.”

Crisis threatens, but morale rises to meet the challenge

Then came 9/11 in 2001 which brought the business to a juddering halt as its biggest clients included Thomas Cook and some airlines. Dale said: “We lost 60 per cent of our business overnight and receivership threatened.”

It was then that Dale realised the true value of the 25-strong team he’d built up. “I told everyone the bare facts. Someone had the idea of taking a pay cut and buying into the problem. They all agreed. That’s when I learned about morale: when I thought it would go down, it went up.”

But he realised things needed to change. Until then it had been a lifestyle business, now it was serious.

“We learned a lot then, about accounts, about cash being king, about e ciencies and working together. It was the worst time and the best time in the company’s history.”

At the time, Kathryn and Richard were still at school, almost oblivious to the tribulations their father was facing.

Dale was still, however, taking calculated risks. He’d expanded into London and, working up to the company’s 25th anniversary, borrowed thousands from his bank to hold a huge party at the West Midlands Safari Park for customers, suppliers and influencers. It brought in new clients and DRPG hasn’t looked back.

Family relationship reveals itself

Richard joined in 2005, the year of the big party. He swept up in the warehouse and loaded trucks, but left for a couple of years to try out the army (though he soon realised it wasn’t for him). Returning a couple of years later, he moved to the lighting department.

“I worked with some great guys of a similar age. We worked hard and played hard, but after a while I began to think what’s next?”

Dale added: “That group was a great cohort – they all grew with the business.”

However, Richard was always conscious, though he never spoke of it with his father, of being the boss’s son.

Dale said: “We deliberately saw that Richard or Kathryn never reported to me directly.”

But there was one situation which did reveal the father/son relationship.

Dale was directing a show at the NEC for an audience of 5,000. He explained: “Richard, in charge of lighting, was new to an event of that size. The system crashed as a video played on massive screens.

“The crew were all chattering on the comms channel as usual, but when the failure happened, they went silent after Richard said: ‘Dad, the system’s gone down.’ Then it became just father and son talking. I thought – I just need to keep him calm. We needed to get the systems up before anyone in the audience realised. We did, and Richard managed a very stressful situation well.

“Everyone realised there was a father/ son thing going on and it was one of the only times that our relationship was obvious in the team.”

Entrepreneurs and problem-solvers

Richard said: “Dad is an entrepreneur. Great at building relationships, understanding people and how to get the best out of them. My strengths are problem-solving.”

Dale added: “I just want things sorted. Richard will be the one to sort them.”

It runs in the family. Kathryn heads the resource department. Having joined as a catering assistant after leaving university (she followed Richard into the business in 2013), she did a short stint in the communications department as a proofreader.

“There was no one looking after props so I suggested it should be me. I have now been Head of Resources for six years and love it.”

In their current roles Kathryn and Richard say they now fully appreciate what their father has built. Kathryn said: “We used to come into the business and play. Dad would use us in video shoots and we’d just have fun. Now we realise the quality of what he’s built and are proud of his achievements.”

Dale, 64, still has big ambitions. Over the last few years, the agency has grown organically and through acquisition (in 2021 DRPG bought A-Vision, a screen content agency which has most of its business in the USA). The business is also winning industry awards and investing in its team and facilities.

Dale said: “I want us to be the agency of choice. To get there we must be the best.

“We have to have the best people. We have a strong board and I would love Richard and Kathryn to be integral to our future success.”

Richard added: “It comes down to what’s best for the business. We have 400 people now, in future years it could be double that. The more I mature the more I appreciate what dad has achieved. People look for leadership and I hope to nurture that quality. But ultimately, I want DRPG itself to succeed.”