Gone Glamping

EJH Distribution Ltd., based in Fort Saskatchewan, north of Edmonton, Alta., specializes in selling award-winning event, camping, glamping and hospitality structures.

“From the very beginning, the whole premise was to be a North American distributor of products from Europe that hadn’t reached the market here yet,” said Edward Haynes, who founded his company in 2019, after working in temporary structure manufacturing sales and event rentals.

EJH was started “basically from my basement,” says Haynes – the company was launched officially in 2020 at the American Rental Association show in Orlando – but “six months in, COVID-19 struck.”

His inventory was tied up in a 40-foot shipping container, and events were on hold. “Hospitality and events [became] illegal for a time when the world shut down – that was a really tough time,” he said.

But the one thing he didn’t do was stop picking up the phone.

“As soon as [restrictions] started to relax, there became an immediate need for temporary structures, so that people could have more space in order to socially distance,” he said.

EJH’s snow-load-engineered dome structures found a ready niche in the ski resort industry. “We sold our very first dome structure to Panorama Mountain Resort in British Columbia. From that sale onward, things went from strength to strength,” said Haynes.

EJH now employs a staff of up to 10 people in its sales and business departments, depending on the time of year. The company sells event tents, temporary structures, furniture, inflatables, flooring, camping equipment and glamping tents to event rental companies, tent rental companies, corporate clients, branding agencies, festivals, hotels, stadiums, resorts, campsites, hospitality groups and to private clients.

The company currently represents five European manufacturers, including De Waard, Creative Structures and Tubbo, and is an agent for about 10 other companies.

Event tents, temporary structures, furniture, inflatables, flooring, camping equipment and glamping tents

“We’ve found excellent manufacturers who are great to work with and are willing to innovate,” said Haynes. “We have worked incredibly hard to make sure that our whole range of products are fully fire-certified and snow-engineered, can deal with snow and wind and be properly insulated, and are as easy to work with as possible.”

Creative Structures, the first manufacturer to partner with Haynes, is a Dutch company that makes beautiful domes.

Creative Structures’ unique rounded structures, which use custom extruded aluminum tubing, galvanized steel connectors and stainless-steel cables, are designed for extra stability and strength for high snow and wind loads and are both Canadian Standards Association and UL certified, making them equally useful in the depths of winter and during the warmer months of summer, says Haynes. They are fully customizable with printed covers, sidewalls and colored tubes, are quick to assemble and come in their own compact transport packaging.

“When we started with Creative, we thought we’d just do event structures,” said Haynes. “Then we were introduced to De Waard and this exciting new market of glamping, and saw that no one in America was doing this quite like they were.”

“We’ve seen the need for unique stays skyrocket – people aren’t interested in just staying at a hotel anymore. They want to go and have a unique experience, and, in my opinion, mountain resorts are a sleeping giant in that industry.”

Edward Haynes, EJH Distribution

De Waard is a 100-year-old Dutch company that used to make sails for the British and Dutch navies, says Haynes, and their uniquely designed, mainly handmade high-quality canvas tents with their striking canopies, large windows and optional insulated inner tents have been found on Dutch campsites for over 70 years.

“And Tubbo – they’re just beautiful!” added Haynes. “You can put them on top of a mountain, they can get hit with 200-mile-an-hour winds and 50 feet of snow, and they won’t have a scratch on them.”

These striking see-through tubular structures are made in Spain to be low-maintenance, easy to install and reposition, and they come with built-in heating, cooling and LED lighting systems; optional custom-made decking and high R-value insulation are also available.

EJH has worked on projects for ski resorts, event rental companies and corporate entities across the U.S. and Canada.

“Because we have a range of products that are built for the ski industry, the winter aspect still remains quite a strong focus for us,” said Haynes.

Glamping

“Glamping and unique accommodations – that’s come out of nowhere in the past five years for us, and it is now our biggest area of business,” said Haynes.

Glamping is the fastest-growing area of hospitality in both the U.S. and Canada, he adds. “We’ve seen the need for unique stays skyrocket – people aren’t interested in just staying at a hotel anymore,” said Haynes. “They want to go and have a unique experience, and, in my opinion, mountain resorts are a sleeping giant in that industry.

“We’re seeing shorter seasons for skiing, harder and more difficult snow conditions to keep people happy and exponentially increasing prices. So, what can we do in those times of year we can’t monetize our ski hills? Glamping is a fantastic solution because you already have the scenery and the infrastructure – and you already have a client base that loves coming to you two or three weekends a year. If you start offering them a unique experience in nature, that’s where I think resorts are really going to end up doing well.”

Nick Purslow, who hosts the “Start a Glamping Business” podcast and is the founder of the glamping consultancy Glampitect North America, is EJH’s glamping expert as well as its business development manager.

EJH offers full in-house design, rendering and project management services and can install the equipment, help with permitting and suggest industry contacts to design and furnish the interiors, “whether it’s a restaurant that wants a winter patio or a ski hill or a glamping resort or a hotel looking at glamping,” said Haynes. “Of course, you can [also] just buy the equipment from us.”

Growth and sustainability

EJH has inventory in Edmonton and a warehouse in Atlanta, and now that the company has been incorporated in the U.S., inventory can be shipped from both the U.S. and Canada. Where it is closer and more cost-effective, EJH will also ship to clients directly from Europe. In the next year or so, the company hopes to work with its manufacturers to find facilities in both Canada and the U.S. that could start making their products here.

“So, what can we do in those times of year we can’t monetize our ski hills? Glamping is a fantastic solution because you already have the scenery and the infrastructure.”

Edward Haynes, EJH Distribution

“EJH carbon-offsets all its shipments,” said Haynes. “Our hope is as we grow, we remain responsible and make sure that sustainability is at the forefront of our business,” said Haynes. “De Waard is cotton canvas and largely hand-made, and newer specialized technologies have allowed the structures to become a lot more sustainable. With Tubbo, we’re looking at developing a water filtration system for the unit so that the water you drink or shower with will be rainfall or snowfall.

“It’s exciting what people are doing in [this] space, not just us – and because new products are coming out all the time, it means that our manufacturers continue to push as well,” said Haynes.

“What makes us unique in the market is that we can put so many high-quality structures in front of you compared to our competitors. We’re also unique in that we can provide a 365-day-a-year permitted, engineered solution, and an in-house team of experts who almost certainly know what you’re trying to achieve and who will work with you every step of the way.”