The Ticket Factory, previously known as the NEC Box Office, is a primary ticket sales and distribution company based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The Ticket Factory was launched in 2007 and is a trading division of The National Exhibition Centre Ltd. The Ticket Factory head office and contact centre is based at the

National Exhibition Centre The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, Solihull, West Midlands, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway stati ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. The Ticket Factory sells and distributes tickets across the UK for music concerts, sporting events, festivals, comedy shows, theatre and exhibitions. The Ticket Factory is the box office for Birmingham-based venues;

Resorts World Arena The Resorts World Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England. It has a capacity of 15,685 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 18 months of constr ...

, the

Utilita Arena Birmingham Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...

and National Exhibition Centre, as well as being the primary agent for

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

and

British Athletics UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics officials. The orga ...

. The Ticket Factory is member of the

Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers The Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), created in 1997, is a United Kingdom body providing self-regulation for the live event ticket sales industry. Its aim is to ensure consumer confidence in the sale of event tickets, and its members ...

(STAR). Notably, The Ticket Factory became exclusive ticket agent for the

Society of London Theatre The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) is an umbrella organisation for West End theatre in London. Founded in 1908, as Society of West End Theatre Managers, then Society of West End Theatre in 1975, changing to its current name in 1994, the (SOLT) ...

’s (SOLT) ‘Get Into London Theatre’ 2014 campaign. In 2012,

Barclaycard Barclaycard (; stylized as barclaycard) is a brand for credit cards of Barclays PLC. , Barclays had over ten million customers in the United Kingdom. History Barclays launched Barclaycard on 29 June 1966, initially as a charge card, but followin ...

partnered with The Ticket Factory to become their official payment partner, which evolved into the Barclaycard Unwind brand and Fee Free Friday. In 2014, The Ticket Factory's parent company, The National Exhibition Centre Ltd. announced a partnership with

Virgin Trains West Coast Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from ...

. In 2020, The Ticket Factory worked with

Acorns Children's Hospice Acorns Children's Hospice Trust is a registered charity, offering a network of palliative care and support to life-limited and life-threatened children and their families across the West Midlands region and part of South West England. Acorns has ...

on the first collaboration with welfare.

History

*1970 NEC Box Office opens *1998 First online ticket sales launched *2006 First tickets scanned for admission to

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

concert at the

National Indoor Arena Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...

*2007 Re-launched as The Ticket Factory *2012

becomes official payment partner *2013

re-appoints The Ticket Factory as national box office *2014 Announces partnership with Virgin Trains West Coast *2016 Becomes the first ticket agent to allow deaf and disabled customers to purchase tickets online through a partnership with the Access Card *2017 Launches the first ever ticketing apprenticeship *2019 Signs a new ticketing partnership with Royal Horticultural Society and becomes official ticketing supplier to British Athletics

Venues

The Ticket Factory is the official box office for two Birmingham based venues;

and

, both are a trading division of The National Exhibition Centre Ltd.

Utilita Arena Birmingham

, formerly known as the Barclaycard Arena and the National Indoor Arena is one of the busiest, large scale indoor sporting and entertainment venues in Europe. Since opening in 1991, it has welcomed visitors to over 30 sports and an extensive variety of entertainment and music. The Ticket Factory has ticketed events from

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and

Kings of Leon Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and gar ...

, to

Disney on Ice Disney on Ice, originally Walt Disney's World on Ice, is a series of touring ice shows produced by Feld Entertainment's Ice Follies And Holiday on Ice, Inc. under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows fea ...

and

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

Resorts World Arena

, formerly known as the Genting Arena and the LG Arena is part of the National Exhibition Centre complex. The 16,000 capacity Resorts World Arena was the largest multi-purpose arena in the UK when opening in 1980 as The NEC Arena and is still a major venue for many large, international touring acts. The Ticket Factory is the official box office for the Resorts World Arena.

External links

Company website

References