GERMANY – Deutsche Messe has had a very successful 2017. The annual report for 2017 reveals consolidated revenues of €356.4 million, which exceeds the target for the year and is the best revenue performance in the group’s 71-year history.

Net profit is also well above the target originally set for the year. At just under €19 million, it is the group’s third-best result since 2001.

“Our record revenue performance shows that trade fairs are all the more important as marketing tools in times of digitization and globalization,” said Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of Deutsche Messe’s Managing Board, at a meeting of the company’s Supervisory Board on Tuesday in Hannover, Germany. “To succeed in the tradeshow business, you need to seize the opportunities of digital transformation and adapt your business model accordingly. At Deutsche Messe, we are doing precisely that – and as such, we are consolidating our position as one of the world’s leading tradeshow companies and giving ourselves strong tailwind for the ongoing implementation of our digital strategy,” he remarked, referring to the significant improvement in the company’s revenue and profit figures.

Consolidated revenues are up 17.9 percent on 2016, and 8.2 percent on the more relevant year of 2015. It is more meaningful to take 2015 as the comparison year, because it is an odd-numbered year, and Deutsche typically runs more shows – and thus has higher revenues – in odd-numbered than in even-numbered years. The record figures for 2017 were due in very large measure to the performance of the company’s international flagship fairs staged at its home base in Hannover, Germany.

Among the key fairs held in the Hanover fairground is Ligna.

“Digital transformation is the No. 1 determinant and driver of our strategic direction,” Köckler explained. “Our digital strategy revolves around facilitating digital connectivity between and among tradeshow visitors and exhibitors and leveraging new technologies to provide a digitally enhanced and enriched tradeshow experience for visitors,” he said. Responsibility for implementing this and developing additional data-driven lines of business rests with the new “Digital Business & Digital Transformation” division, which Deutsche Messe established last year.