HE shot to fame presenting a television programme which gave people the confidence to strip off before the camera.
Now Gok Wan, the television personality and fashion consultant, is moving into the Scottish business scene.
Wan has expanded his burgeoning business interests by launching an events company with Peter Ferguson, the Edinburgh-based entrepreneur.
Beautiful Events and Productions, which officially opens for business today, aims to provide a world class service to companies, networking events and awards ceremonies, with an initial focus on the Scottish market. And it has already secured high-profile clients, with Microsoft, The Scottish Hotel Awards and The Celebration of Sports Awards already on its roster.
The partnership came about after Mr Ferguson’s PDF Productions, which he has run for more than a decade, handled production duties for Wan’s Fashion Brunch Clubs Tour when it came to Scotland last year.
Speaking to The Herald, the celebrity said he and the 42 year old Scot hit it off straight away, quickly discovering that they share similar philosophies when it comes to business.
So much so that they took the step to effectively merge PDF with Wan’s own events business to “create a much bigger, much stronger, much more comprehensive production company”.
Wan said: “It’s kind of happened all very organically, it was never set out this way. Often in business when you meet someone with the same values as you, the same kind of energy, it is real shame not to put those two together.”
Wan noted that both he and Mr Ferguson had brought clients to the merged entity, which blends his wider UK presence with the Scot’s strong links around Scotland. And, chiefly through word of mouth, the enquiries have been flooding in. “As a result of that, we’re booking a lot of work at the moment, which is brilliant,” he said.
“It’s amazing, especially in this climate. We couldn’t have asked to be this busy to begin with. We have a very, very strong 12 months.”
He added: “We’re not looking to book lots and lots and lots of events and find ourselves run off our feet. What we want to do is the work we have brought in, and really concentrate on the quality of what we are doing.”
Wan might be famous for his television work, but he received a grounding in business from an early age, having grown up in and around the restaurants owned by his father.
With the new venture, Wan said he will lead on the creative, financial and development side, with Mr Ferguson overseeing the production of the events. The pair have brought on board a managing director, Natalie Sturge, who “marries the two us together”.
Wan said: “Because Peter is based in Scotland and I’m based in London it works really well. It means we are not sitting in each other’s pockets.
"We also know our strengths. From a running the company point of view, it’s myself and Natalie, but when the events come in that’s Peter’s forte. He gets heavily involved, rolls up his sleeves and makes sure it all happens.”
Asked whether he had any concerns about Brexit, Wan said that while he was “worried and nervous... we cannot live in fear. We have not forgotten about it and we are respecting it. But we are not going to let it hold us back either.”
Mr Ferguson said: “Merging my company, PDF Productions, with the Fashion Brunch Clubs has cemented the partnership with Gok who brings his unquestionable flair and expertise to the business. This will really offer added value and, dare we say, a little star quality to our events.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel