The UPS Store delivers on nautical parade as animatronic seahorse claims world record
On New Year’s Day, a towering mechanical seahorse – the centrepiece of The UPS Store (USA) float - made its way down the famous parade route of The Tournament Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
The float’s centrepiece broke the record for the largest animatronic fish, measuring 8.54 m (28 ft) x 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in) x 3.74 m (12 ft 3 in).
The UPS Store is the United States’ largest franchise system of retail shipping, postal, print, and business service centres , offering support to small businesses.
For this year’s float, The UPS Store chose an underwater theme with a giant animatronic seahorse teaching his babies a swimming routine.
This display of guidance through supportive coaching is something The UPS Store wanted to parallel with their own mission of helping the next generation of small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The construction of the float began with a hand-crafted wire of the shape, with the use of electrical machinery for the animation.
One of the unique requirements of the parade is all floats must be covered entirely in natural materials such as flowers, seeds and plant matter.
The UPS Store adhered to this by decorating the float with over 300,000 pieces of material, including orange lentils,corn husks, mushrooms, kumquats, orange slices to decorate the seahorses’ exterior, and, of course, roses!
In total, it took seven months to build and complete the float.
After the measurements were confirmed, the Guinness World Records certificate was presented to Rob Connelly, Sr. Manager of Marketing for The UPS Store, Inc.
On behalf of our franchise network of more than 5,400 stores nationwide, we are honoured to receive the Director Award and proud to make history with a Guinness World Records title. This achievement celebrates creativity, collaboration, and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives us to keep pushing boundaries for our customers, franchisees and future entrepreneurs. Thank you to the incredible volunteers, builder and designer who brought our float to life. - Sarah Casalan, President of the UPS Store Inc.
