“How confident are we in our pricing now? It’s night and day. We’ve refined the system to a point where pricing is consistent, controlled, and completely reliable across the board.”
HTS Creative by the numbers
Quadrupled full-time workforce following an MBO without operational friction.
New starters fully operational on HireHop within two hours.
Built a robust operational structure to support their next milestone.
Total “Night and Day” confidence across quoting, sub-hires, and invoicing.
From specialised dry-hire to prestigious national events
HTS Creative has been a staple of the live events industry for over 20 years, but the business today looks very different from the one that started two decades ago.
What began as a specialised dry-hire operation has evolved into a full-scale production powerhouse, delivering some of the UK’s most prestigious national setups, from the Windsor Castle Jubilee to the Poole Harbour Festival and iconic London installations.
Following a management buyout in 2019, Managing Director Joe Morris and his team took the helm, rapidly growing the business from 5 to 23 full-time employees. But as project scale tripled and operational complexity surged, their legacy internal systems hit a hard wall.
HTS Creative delivering complex structural staging in Trafalgar Square, London.
A foundation that couldn’t scale
Before making the move to HireHop, HTS Creative was reliant on a legacy, server-based system that Joe describes simply as “horrendous.”
The issue wasn’t just a clunky interface; it was a fundamental lack of trust in the data. The system couldn’t reliably show what had and hadn’t been invoiced, meaning the team spent hours double-checking figures, auditing job folders, and manually verifying jobs.
For a business scaling at pace, these “invisible” revenue leaks and administrative bottlenecks weren’t just frustrating: they were a direct risk to the company’s momentum.
“We never want to go back to server-based systems. HireHop has been a key enabler in our transition from a rental-focused business to a project-led production company.”
Choosing agility over “the devil you know”
Switching core software is a major commitment for any rapidly growing team. It meant cleaning up years of legacy customer and inventory data, re-evaluating stock codes, and reworking internal processes from the ground up.
However, Joe and his leadership team recognised they had reached a critical operational crossroads.
To continue scaling toward their ambitious long-term goal of 50+ staff, they needed a system that supported rapid, informed decision-making across office operations, commercial pricing, and site production — without creating administrative bottlenecks.
A disciplined 6-week reset
In practice, the migration was far smoother than the typical software implementation story. HTS Creative chose a disciplined approach, running their legacy system side-by-side with HireHop for six weeks to verify every stock code, rate sheet, and workflow.
Because HireHop is built on real-world rental industry logic rather than rigid corporate rules, staff picked it up almost immediately. Rather than a disruption, the switch became an opportunity to permanently eliminate years of data clutter.
Today, when new team members join HTS Creative, they are brought up to speed and fully functional on HireHop in under two hours.
The HTS Migration Journey
The impact: “Night and day” confidence
The most immediate shift hasn’t just been in the software interface, but in the entire atmosphere of the office. With accurate, live data flowing across departments, the lingering doubt about missed invoices or pricing errors has completely disappeared.
Structured flexibility in quoting
HTS Creative can now present equipment in a way that is clear and professional for the client, while allowing the warehouse and delivery teams to see the detailed, technically complex specifications behind the scenes.
Reliable margin control
For Joe, the change in financial visibility has been transformative. The team can now see exactly what they are making on every job, allowing them to offer competitive value without losing control of their profitability.
A proven foundation for scalable growth
By removing operational friction and software constraints, HTS Creative has quadrupled its core team from 5 to 23 staff while building the structural capacity to comfortably scale past 50+.
HTS Creative executing full-scale event production at Poole Harbour Festival.
A foundation built for 50+ staff
HTS Creative doesn’t see HireHop as a vendor, but as a long-term partner in their growth. As they look toward doubling their team again and broadening their product offering, they finally have a foundation that allows them to evolve without friction. By removing the operational debt of their old system, HTS Creative is back to doing what they do best: delivering exceptional experiences for artists and audiences alike.
Before vs. After: The HTS Transformation
How switching to HireHop permanently changed daily operations.
| Operational Challenge | Legacy Server Setup | HireHop Cloud Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing & Revenue | Unbilled jobs, “invisible” leaks, manual spreadsheet audits | Automated billing sync & zero missed line items |
| Quote Margins | Inconsistent pricing & uncertain project profitability | “Night and Day” confidence with live margin tracking |
| Team Onboarding | Steep learning curve & dated interface | New starters fully operational in 2 hours |
| Site Operations | Tethered to office server; site crews out of sync | Real-time cloud access via tablets & mobile |