Le Mark Group Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Le Mark Group, the UK-based supplier of self-adhesive tapes, labels, floors, and crew wear to the live entertainment, television, and film industries, celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Founded in 1983 by Stuart Gibbons and his ex-wife Linda Gibbons, it has grown and evolved several times, until settling in at its current location at Houghton Hill Industries in Cambridgeshire.

By the 1990s, the product range had grown to include dance floors. Many '90s TV shows, such as BBC TV's Top of the Pops, Morecambe & Wise, and Play Your Cards Right, all used Le Mark flooring. The BBC comedy game show Blankety Blank termed the phrase "a shiny floor show" using Le Mark's Studiotak peel-clean stage floor covering.

The company continued to evolve its product range, moving into bigger events. Le Mark supplied, printed, and installed its Harmony stage floor for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The company still holds the record for the largest printed outdoor show floor, being 7,500 sq. m.

Looking back, Stuart Gibbons says, "Le Mark has weathered two global recessions, a banking crisis, and COVID-19, which pivoted our core business to make PPE masks, demountable screens, and COVID signs during lockdown. We have built an enviable reputation for product innovation -- five awards -- having four separate business units with interconnected product groups."

Adhesive products are still very much at the core of Le Mark, with dance and performance stage floors added to its catalog. The company also has its own range of PPE gloves made for the rigging and stage-building sector and is proud to be the first to design practical workwear for women in that industry. A high point came in 2019 when HRH The Princess Royal visited Le Mark to open its third warehouse facility.

With Neil Baldock and youngest son Mark Gibbons added as directors, the company has kept its focus fresh and innovative while retaining its family values.

The 40th anniversary today will see family, friends, staff, and clients coming together, some traveling from Europe to join Le Mark for this milestone event.

The evening has a full program of live music: Six performers from the Young Technicians Academy, where Stuart Gibbons is a patron, along with other local talent, will perform. A Beautiful Noise, the UK's leading Neil Diamond tribute band, will headline later in the evening. There will be a raffle and auction in support of Magpas Air Ambulance, an emergency medical charity that provides pre-hospital emergency care, in the air or on land, including treatments normally only available in hospitals.