Among the leading exhibition companies worldwide, German and UK organisers are well-represented.
Based on revenue figures for 2015, four exhibition companies from Germany were among the top 10. That was the result of a study concluded by the AUMA Association of the German Trade Fair Industry in August 2016.
After the British organisers Reed Exhibitions (EUR 1.183bn) and UBM (EUR 855.5m), Messe Frankfurt was the third-ranked company with revenues of EUR 647.8m, followed by the French venue operator, organiser and exhibition service provider GL Events, which posted revenues of EUR 456m.
Three further German organisers occupied the places 8, 9 and 10: Deutsche Messe AG Hanover with revenues of EUR 329.3m, Koelnmesse with EUR 321.2m and Messe Düsseldorf with EUR 302m.
Overall, companies from Europe dominate the rankings of exhibition firms with revenues over EUR 100m. Just five of 31 companies have their headquarters outside of Europe: Emerald Expositions (USA) in 12th place, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in 15th, Coex (Korea) in 16th, Tokyo Big Sight in 20th and SNIEC Shanghai in 28th.
Of the exhibition companies with revenues of over EUR 100m, eight are headquartered in Germany and seven in the UK.
The German exhibition companies posted total revenues of EUR 3.4 billion in 2015. Due to the cyclical strength of the current exhibition year, in 2016 AUMA expects revenues of between EUR 3.6 and 3.7 billion.
