Numerous German exhibition companies are among the worldwide leaders in the sector. Measured by revenue in 2018, seven of the world’s top 15 exhibition companies, or almost half, are based in Germany. This is the result of a study completed in August 2019 by AUMA – the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry. The study basing on reported revenues covers companies that solely operate as exhibition organisers, along with companies that operate exhibition venues, and companies active in both fields.
Following two British organisers, namely Reed Exhibitions (€1,351.9 million) and informa (€1,318.9 million), which acquired British organiser UBM in mid-2018, Messe Frankfurt came in third place with sales of €718.1 million. It was followed by GL events from France (€477 million), the MCH Group from Switzerland (€463.9 million) and Messe München (€417.9 million). Another five German organisers also made it into the top 15: Messe Berlin came in ninth place (€352.1 million) and Koelnmesse in tenth (€337.4 million); additionally NürnbergMesse in twelfth (€315.1 million), Deutsche Messe AG Hannover in thirteenth (€309.7 million) and Messe Düsseldorf in fourteenth place (€294 million).
Of the 34 exhibition companies with revenue totalling more than €100 million, nine are based in Germany and eight in the United Kingdom. Companies from Europe dominate this ranking overall, with only four of the 34 companies based outside Europe: Emerald Expositions (USA), Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Tokyo Big Sight and SNIEC Shanghai.
Revenue generated by German exhibition organisers totalled approximately €4 billion in 2018. For 2019, AUMA is anticipating sales of approximately €3.8 billion, largely due to the fact that 2019 is a year with less intervalbased events.
