Olympics helping Arco to create its own legacy

But, for the company that kitted them out, the London 2012 ambassadors represented much more than that – they showcased a ‘game-changing’ achievement and a springboard into new markets.

Hull-based Arco, the UK leader in safety equipment and industrial workwear, supplied the distinctive uniforms for 7,500 ambassadors who turned the biggest event ever staged in the UK into the friendly Games.

Arco equipped each of the ambassadors with their Olympics outfit of storm-proof jacket, fleece, two pairs of cargo pants, two polo shirts, backpack, water bottle and hat. At £1.6m the contract was the biggest single deal Arco has ever secured and, by far, the most challenging. It also capped a record year for the business, with sales up by seven per cent and profits leaping by 30 per cent in the year to the end of June.

Like Team GB’s medal heroes, the Arco Olympic success was the climax of years of planning and preparation. As long ago as 2006 Arco opened a branch at Stratford on the doorstep of the Olympic Park, enabling the business to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to sub-contractors working on the huge site from the moment it took shape, as well as the redevelopment of Stratford Station.

In all, Arco clinched £2m of orders related to the Games, but the ambassadors’ kit was the big one and a huge source of pride for the workforce of the family-owned business.

Joint managing director Thomas Martin said: “There could not have been a bigger stage on which to demonstrate our capabilities.

“This contract, this success, is a game-changer for us because we have demonstrated to a number of blue chip businesses and public sector agencies that we have a proven capability with a completely new suite of products and services and we chose the biggest event in my lifetime to test it and prove it.”

Arco is more usually associated with workwear in safety-critical environments, such as flame-retardant overalls worn on oil and gas rigs, or functional clothing for warehouse operations. The ambassador outfits are very different – they are what Mr Martin describes as “corporate image wear”.

The contract posed huge challenges for Arco – not least producing thousands of outfits to measurements supplied by the ambassadors almost a year before the Games. By time of dispatch, some of the Games makers had slimmed down to be in tip-top condition for the Olympics, for others expanded waistlines were evidence of less committed training regimes.

It also required Arco to recruit new people and adopt new competencies, such as in garment design and technology. This now enables the business to “cast a wider net” in targeting customers and markets.

Arco formed a 15-strong cross-company project team last November, with dozens more involved in fulfilling the contract’s requirements. The team met every week until finally wrapping up as the Olympics ended, even though the ambassadors will continue to delight visitors to the Paralympic Games.

Despite the long lead-up, Arco had just three days of “contingency” to accommodate unknown factors and unforeseen delays.

Over a four-week period, kits for all the ambassadors were dispatched from Arco’s National Distribution Centre (NDC) on the western edge of Hull to individual addresses. One week saw 46,000 individual Olympics items go through the NDC, two thirds as much again as the normal throughput.

Lee Bilsborough, project manager for the Olympics order, said: “Everyone understood the magnitude of this order and what it meant for Arco. There was no doubt about that. Mr Martin said: “For us this is the most phenomenal springboard in so many ways.

“Previously we wouldn’t have been able to go to a British Airways or a Transport for London, for example, and say ‘we have got a proven track record’. Now we’ve got that track record, so the legacy that we create is basically up to us.”

For Mr Martin the Olympics legacy for Arco is powerful, but he is less convinced that it is as positive for Team GB Plc. It did, though, prove the power of ‘can-do’ spirit.

“Success comes in cans,” he says. “If you’re a can-do company there’s loads of opportunities out there.”

And for fellow joint managing director Nick Hildyard there is an enduring fulfilment. “At the closing ceremony the cheer for the volunteer ambassadors just went on and on,” he said. “There is a huge sense of pride that we have played a part in that.”