Sydney PA Hire Sold

Acquired by Julius Grafton

Well-established Artarmon-based Sydney PA Hire has been sold to Julius Grafton, founder of CX and current operator of ENTECH Roadshow. Grafton acquired the firm, a joint venture between Lee Wright’s Sydney PA Hire and David Carter’s Econosound in July.

Best known as a busy ‘driveway hire’ business, SPAH also specialises in outdoor community events using battery packs and long distance wireless delays. It has a solid customer base for weddings and corporate meetings in Sydney CBD.

Wright and Carter founded the business in 2010, bringing together Carter’s Econosound and Wright’s SPAH as a successful partnership that has garnered hundreds of 5-star Google reviews, lifting it to the top of the search engine. Wright lives in rural Orange where he also operates Orange PA Hire which has grown to include marquees and party furniture.

The retirement of Carter, who enjoys his 80^th birthday soon was the catalyst for the sale. Grafton came upon the business as a freelance AV tech, attracted by the typically daytime work in Sydney CBD, close to his Balmain base. “I couldn’t believe how well presented and prepared their equipment was. Every show I did for them was perfectly specified,” he said.

Carter has engineered a lot of very specialised wireless tech, able to spread a system across a large fun run, for example, with a lot of battery and inverter packs enabling SPAH to cover many square kilometres in all weather.

Wright did all the sales, and methodically chased down the hundreds of five star reviews that fuel the bookings. “These guys are many things I am not, so I’m planning on sticking to their dance card,” says Grafton. SPAH doesn’t hire DJ decks or big banging systems, rather they have a large inventory of small systems.

Grafton established a small AV firm after Covid that predominantly supplied bands and concerts, and sold that to Red Globe Productions in 2023. “I got jaded with mixing covers bands, it was the same as forty or fifty years ago when ‘Oz Rawk Classics’ were originals. I found myself enduring bad covers and watching weekend warriors murdering great songs.”

“Sydney PA Hire work in a very competitive space,” he continued. “There are a dozen similar firms – maybe DJ Warehouse stands out – and then there are at least eight major AV suppliers. The point of difference is the legacy and the reviews. I decided I could do justice to the work Lee and David have done, and hopefully bolster it up a little. But I’m staying with their formula and not going after anyone else – my primary gig is to run ENTECH each year with my partner Kate McKenzie who now takes the operational lead while I do the sales”.

“I have an abiding passion for customer satisfaction at whatever I do, I really do care about whatever I sell. Taking on SPAH is a natural fit for me, and I’m looking forwards to more gigs – day gigs. Late nights are not my thing anymore,” concluded Grafton.

www.sydneypahire.com.au