Twenty-five years ago, Group Delphi was a small operation with its CEO and Founder Justin Hersh envisioning what it could become.
Now, the company is growing more than ever, taking advantage of new opportunities in the tradeshow, event and retail industries. The last four years especially saw the company double in size.
“The growth came out of demand from our client base and new clients. It was a combination of strategic acquisitions and just having the right message that resonates with customers,” explained Hersh. “
With its national profile rising, Group Delphi continually sought opportunities to grow, whether it was hiring more employees or strategizing to operate more effectively. This in turn led the company to lease its 190,000 square-foot Alameda, Calif. facility for another seven years and invest more than $4 million to construct a 200,000 square-foot facility in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Group Delphi is also investing in its digital content team who play an important role in creating experiential environments.
“People understand that tradeshows are important part of their [marketing] mix, but they may ask ‘How can we make them more effective? How can they become experiential to engage with customers?’ Whether it’s digital content, an interactive touch screen, gamification or branding, we highly integrate content into the experience, so it’s not just a structure. It’s an experience we bring together,” he added.
Hiring digital content and technology experts is easy when Northern California is your backyard. After all, the Alameda facility is only a short car ride away from Silicon Valley, a mecca for technology companies around the world.
“In Northern California, we are in a hub of innovation. We benefit from being in a marketplace where we have access to creativity and talent. We are able to bring that to customers all over the country. A lot of companies work separately, but we integrate both offices,” stated Hersh. “Our creative people span broad backgrounds, such as wood workers, artists and digital designers. They can respond to anything the customer needs them to do.”
When compared among other Northern California tradeshow companies, Group Delphi’s Alameda facility is the largest of its kind. Home to a major manufacturing and logistics operation, the facility is also the center of design, warehousing and graphics. The property features what Hersh called a “very hip” repurposed World War II hangar. Natural lighting streams inside the hangar’s wide glass door, brightening a spacious, 32-foot-tall work space.
Satisfied with the Alameda facility and location, Group Delphi leaders are considering capital improvements in the future. At the moment, the large-scale expansion in Fort Wayne is currently at the forefront.
Scheduled to open at the end of this year, the ultra-modern Fort Wayne facility will consolidate four buildings on 200,000 square feet. These buildings are currently used for offices, manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing and storage.
The new space will also allow Group Delphi to work more effectively on behalf of its clients, according to Hersh, as well as reach its goal to hire 68 employees by 2017. Currently, the company has 175 employees across both of its facilities.
“Having additional space will give us room for more employees. We are used to planning, so we will make sure the building gets built to specifications, and we will staff the company as it grows,” he added. “We are fortunate to have a strong management team — a group of bright people who are clear on who we are. We can take all the steps we need.”
As it expands, Group Delphi is continuing to serve its customers. Just this past August in San Francisco, the company transformed environments for Symantec and Hitachi Data Systems for VMworld, the global conference for virtualization and cloud computing.
“It’s a big show for us. It’s right in our backyard,” stated Hersh.
VMware, the conference host and a software company, has been a Group Delphi client for three and a half years.
“We design, build and implement their corporate presence at their own show. They use our full suite of products — digital content, experiential marketing, logistics, etc.,” he said.
As a diversified enterprise, Group Delphi not only handles permanent installation at VMware’s facility, but it also takes on other projects outside of tradeshows and events. This includes retail stores, lobbies, visitor centers, corporate briefing centers or anywhere a message needs to be conveyed.
During Group Delphi’s busy August, a major project debuted in Chicago. The company partnered with e.a.t. — which stands for “education, agriculture, technology” – to transform downtown Chicago’s old, unused newsstands into colorfully branded healthy food stands, also known as “e.a.t. spots.”
With two of the 45 square-foot food kiosks already in operation, four more Group Delphi- designed kiosks are scheduled to open before the year’s end.
A non-profit organization, e.a.t. hopes to help people eat healthier and expand its operation to other locales after 2015. This is something Group Delphi’s leaders can relate to with the Fort Wayne expansion and other initiatives they have in mind to precisely meet client demand across all business lines. As Hersh said, the company’s customers are its best references.
To learn more about Group Delphi, visit http://www.groupdelphi.com/.
