Messe Frankfurt is continuing its growth momentum and expects a significant increase in sales for the current financial year. At the company’s half-year press conference, Messe Frankfurt President and Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Marzin said: “If everything stays on schedule, we want to be the first German trade fair company to pass the €600 million sales mark by a significant margin”.
This means the group will be taking up where it left off following its previous record year 2014, with sales of approximately €554 million and annual net income of over €33 million.
“We are well on schedule with our defined strategic framework Messe Frankfurt 2020 and already have our strategic sights set on further developments up until 2025”, added Marzin.
The first six months of the current financial year have been buoyed by great momentum. With regard to operations in and outside Germany, Executive Board member Detlef Braun stressed: “Many flagship events in Germany have set new records, enjoyed high international reputation and received excellent feedback from customers”.
Messe Frankfurt is expanding its core areas of expertise steadily, thereby adding to its worldwide service portfolio and expertise.
Braun said: “With our brands, we are right at home in key international hubs. In 2015, our foreign events will once again be a significant lever in further developing our business operations. This year, our successful new events include Leatherworld Dubai, Modern Bakery in Moscow and Emitex in Buenos Aires.”
Like any other company, Messe Frankfurt is a byword for internationally successful trade fair concepts in promising technology sectors. It plans to further expand and intensify its Technology & Production and Mobility & Infrastructure business fields. From this year, Comtrans and Autotrans, the most successful commercial vehicle trade fairs in Russia and its neighbouring States, have been part of the group’s portfolio. Another new addition to the portfolio is Automechanika Chicago. The coming year will see a new strategic move with Automechanika Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Also in 2016, “Automechanika Birmingham will be the first event ever to be held in Great Britain in Messe Frankfurt’s illustrious history”, added Braun.
The current financial year has been a strong guest event year at the group’s Frankfurt base. The rotation of events is such that the exhibition grounds play host to the three major traditional guest events – ACHEMA, IAA Cars and the Frankfurt Book Fair – every six years. The congress business also enjoyed new customers and a healthy bookings situation.
As Uwe Behm, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, stated: “The Congress Frankfurt and Kap Europa venues have established themselves as a formidable duo”. For instance, the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), the world’s oldest and Europe’s most important conference and networking event for the High-Performance Computing (HPC) community, is scheduled for mid-July.
Messe Frankfurt will continue to invest with clear strategic priorities based on the company’s core objectives and to tap into new growth opportunities worldwide. Said Wolfgang Marzin: “In our portfolio, we have a good range of themes, including key themes of our age such as energy efficiency, increased productivity (Industry 4.0), security and environmental protection, all of which are increasing in importance and in influence. With focused globalisation, a balanced portfolio and a clear brand strategy in our core areas of expertise, we are very well positioned. We can offset potential risks in the world markets and are expanding our market share anticyclically”.
Messe Frankfurt has scheduled a total of 24 new events for this and the coming financial year. “Our success abroad makes a key contribution to our investments at our Frankfurt base and helps to bring about a sustainable improvement in capacity utilisation there, which is also in the interest of our shareholders. Our sights are now on the next interim targets as part of our Messe Frankfurt 2020 strategy, and we aim to further increase our market share worldwide in the current financial year”, added Marzin.