Sixty82 celebrates company launch
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The company brings together prominent professionals from the Netherland’s Prolyte Group and France’s Axente, along with Adrian and Lee Brooks from the UK. The company is planning to introduce a track-and-trace technology that guarantees every individual component is traceable, safe and properly engineered.
Fokko Smeding, Prolyte Group founder and CEO of Sixty82, says: “With some of the trussing world’s most experienced and trusted individuals behind our product line, we are extremely excited to launch Sixty82.
“Our passion has always been to supply the industry with safe, well-manufactured products, and back that up with our trademark - superlative, knowledgeable customer service. We have focused on the introduction of new technology that will become an industry standard within a short amount of time, and in providing our customers with confidence and security.”
Serving alongside CEO Smeding will be Marc Hendriks, former techical director at Prolyte, who will fulfil the techical director role at the new company. He joined Prolyte in the early 1990s where he was responsible for many technical ‘world firsts’. He is a prominent figure in a number of industry working groups and is dedicated to the development and innovation of safe aluminium structures.
Also involved in the new company will be Adrian Brooks who founded AstraLite, widely credited as the world’s first aluminium modular trussing system, in 1981. He has been a serial entrepreneur and investor in a number of concepts including Live Track and Digital Track trussing systems, the arena rehearsal facility LS-Live Studio 001 and Backstage Academy.
Lee Brooks trained as a mechanical engineer and was previously CEO of Prolyte. He is now CEO of Production Park and will bring to Sixty82 a combination of technical and commercial understanding of the sector, alongside a flair for business strategy and marketing.
Axente CEO Xavier Drouet founded Axente in 1993 after 12 years of professional experience in trussing rental and sales. With Axente’s primary role as the exclusive French distributor for Prolyte, Drouet successfully introduced and developed the Prolyte brand in France over 25 years, alongside other brands such as MA Lighting and Robe.
Axente general manager, Jérôme Bréhard began his industry experience with French luminaire manufacturer Robert Juliat before joining Axente in 1997 to develop Prolyte, MA Lighting and other brands.
Alain-René Lantelme joined Axente in 1998 after 20 years’ experience in rental and integration roles. He also helped develop Prolyte and other brands sales at Axente.
Lee Brooks comments: “With Sixty82, we believe we have the right team, a combination of all the experience and lessons learned, with young, dynamic people to drive the future forward. We strive to develop ways of doing things better so our clients can concentrate on building incredible things.”
Sixty82 will exhibit for the first time at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt on 10-13 April in Hall 3.0 Stand E71.
(Jim Evans)
