BusinessTN

In 1924, the three Mahaffey brothers, Owen, Gene and Earl, launched their Memphis business making tarpaulins, awnings and cotton pick sacks. Five years later, after receiving a request to make a large tent, the brothers obliged. Though the tent went unused -- the client failed to pick it up -- it wasn't long before the Tri-State Fair (now the Mid-South Fair) came calling. The brothers rented their first tent to the fair, and a new business was born.

Today -- nearly 38 years after William Pretsch purchased the company from the Mahaffey family -- Mahaffey Fabric Structures installs more than 500 fabric structures, tents and accessory/party rentals throughout the United States and the Caribbean each year. Mahaffey even offers the largest rental structure in North America -- a fabric structure large enough to cover a football field.

The company counts among its clients many well-known festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Memphis in May International Festival and its very first client, the Mid-South Fair. The company also works with military, industrial and disaster relief clients.

And while Mahaffey's social events business has suffered over the past year due to the down economy and what company president Pretsch calls the "AIG effect," the company has been able to focus on growing other aspects of the business.

"The AIG effect has accentuated the desire [among corporations] not to do anything over the top or newsworthy in any way," Pretsch says. "This has negatively affected Las Vegas and Orlando for conventions and the PGA and LPGA tours that were big tent users for corporate hospitality. The upside is that we see more demand for our semi-permanent warehouses, as businesses neither want to build nor commit to leasing space with the future so uncertain."

Military markets, Pretsch says, are also booming, due in part to President Obama's "Afghan surge."

"This training surge is accentuated because the language and culture in Iraq doesn't translate directly to Afghanistan, and there are dramatic differences that our troops must be trained for," Pretsch says. "So, we have been active in establishing bases for domestic training that duplicate the facilities our troops will encounter overseas."

Pretsch says the company recently shipped two cargo freighters of tents to Kandahar, Afghanistan. He plans to pursue similar opportunities in 2010 and also hopes to focus locally on smaller-scale events, providing party rentals such as tables, chairs, dance floors and lighting.

From a small canvas awning business to a successful, well-known clear-span structure rental, lease and purchase company, Mahaffey's first 85 years were ever-changing and innovating. It stands to reason that the next 85 will be the same.