TOR Systems, a ticketing and booking specialist, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The family business started in 1981, with Wembley Stadium as its first client, and has grown into a leading ticketing solutions provider over the past four decades, while still maintaining its core values of service and people.
“We are delighted to be celebrating our 40th anniversary as the UK’s leading ticketing solution supplier,” says Daniel Jordan, managing director. “We built our company on honesty, loyalty and customer service and that ethos continues to this day.”
Beginnings as an operator
The company began in Stoke-on-Trent as an operator, when Daniel’s parents John and Grace moved from London, where John had been working as a film-maker. When he started an arthouse cinema called Stoke Film Theatre, John (pictured, top, centre) saw that receipts for tickets were taking too long to print. In response, he worked with a team of technical experts to create the fastest ticket printer in the world.
The operator-turned-supplier then provided this solution to Wembley Stadium in 1982, and then to other leading football clubs like Liverpool and Everton. In 1984, the company also became the ticketing solutions provider for Alton Towers. Now, it counts a wide range of top attractions around the UK as customers, including the British Museum and the Imperial War Museums.
Continuing innovation
Over the last four decades, TOR Systems has continued to innovate in order to meet customer needs and to move with the trends, such as the increase in advance bookings. The company aims to enhance the guest experience with positive visitor engagement, through ticketing, retail, membership, booking and CRM systems.
“I’m delighted to have happy, loyal customers that want to stay with us – and that also applies to our loyal team members. I’m very proud of the ethos of the company which has been built on over the years – Dad would be very happy with the company and the product and services it offers,” adds Jordan.
The TOR team took a privately chartered canal boat trip to celebrate and is also planning a Christmas party.
Milestones
In the 1980s, after bringing new customers Wembley Stadium and Alton Towers on board, TOR’s Speed Box System moved onto Microsoft’s DOS platform in 1988. Then, in the 1990s, Daniel Jordan joined the family business and the company won the British Museum and the Natural History Museum as clients, going live with the NHM’s ticketing solution within four weeks.
In 2005, John Jordan retired and Daniel Jordan took on the role of managing director, helping to bring the MaximWeb online ticketing platform to the market two years later. The company continued to grow in the 2010s, becoming Fidelity Systems’ stock management partner in 2015 and creating the MaximWeb responsive platform in 2016. In 2017, it developed a series of portals for trade, group, and members.
In 2018, it brought the Maxim Cloud solution to the market, replacing Windows Maxim, and then brought cloud hosting partner Millenia on board in 2019. Most recently, it supported new customer BeWILDerwood Cheshire to open in the midst of the pandemic and is also bringing a new online platform to the marketplace.
Earlier this year, TOR Systems recruited Gabriel Leatham, a Masters-degree educated software developer, expanding its development team. The addition of this new highly skilled team member will allow the company to build on its existing software.
