Messe Frankfurt, after facing a setback in 2020 and the first half of 2021, is geared up to start again.
Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Messe Frankfurt recently said to the media, “If the pandemic situation continues to improve, we have every confidence that we will be able to get fully started again in all areas in 2022. We are aiming for sales of over €500 million.”
On the other side, Messe Frankfurt is the world’s largest trade fair, congress, and event organizer with its own exhibition grounds and responsible for leading apparel and textile trade shows like Texprocess, Techtextil, Texworld, Intertextile Shanghai, Yarn Expo, Heimtextil, Gartex Texprocess, and Apparel Sourcing, amongst many others.
The majority of these fairs got postponed in 2020 in view of widespread global pandemic till the situation becomes normal.
Their trade fairs, congresses, and other events are central elements in the global economy and part of the economic lifeblood of Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region in particular.
“I firmly believe that, once the pandemic has passed, Messe Frankfurt will be one of the top players in the international trade fair sector,” said Mayor Peter Feldmann, Chairman of the Messe Frankfurt Supervisory Board.
The company forecasts, that the events might take place again at the Group’s Frankfurt base in the second half of this year.
Messe Frankfurt says, “Since the pandemic broke out in March 2020, it has been scarcely possible to generate any sales at all in Germany.”
Besides that, after the final financial report for the financial year 2020 was submitted, Group sales were approximately €257 million, down from approximately €736 million in 2019.
As per the officials, the current financial year will also see a decline in all the Group’s financial performance indicators. In spite of very difficult conditions, a total of 153 events were held over the past financial year.
With more than 33,000 (2019: 99,246) exhibiting companies and 1.20 million visitors, these included 46 trade fairs and exhibitions as compared to 155 in 2019.
Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, added, “The digital working environment and long-distance interaction that have been our everyday reality for over a year have led to certain digital fatigue amongst many people. In the overall context of our events, hybrid events will continue to play an important part and to add value for the sectors.”
It is known that Messe Frankfurt is planning events in digital, hybrid, and in-person formats for the third and fourth quarters of the current financial year. After a few days, the premiere of Frankfurt Fashion Week is to take place in digital form under the Frankfurt Fashion Week (FFW) Studio label.
