Until recently, Messe Frankfurt had stuck to its plans to be able to hold trade fairs in Russia from March 22nd.

But on Tuesday afternoon it was announced that Messe Frankfurt would suspend all events in Russia until further notice due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This was decided by the management, according to the company, which is supported by the state of Hesse and the city of Frankfurt.

On Monday, when asked, the following was said: "Medium-term effects on the international business of Messe Frankfurt - in Russia and at our other locations worldwide - cannot be predicted at the present time." But now the company, which was severely affected by the pandemic, announced: “Messe Frankfurt supports all of the federal government’s sanctions.”

Patricia Andreae

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Messe Frankfurt's business in Russia is handled by the subsidiary Messe Frankfurt RUS in Moscow, which was founded in 2002 and has around 50 employees.

A few days ago, the Frankfurt trade fair company announced on request that 17 different events were being organized in Russia, which counted 3,900 exhibitors and 155,000 visitors in regular, pandemic-free times.

The Frankfurt subsidiary had planned five trade fairs in Moscow so far for 2022: Modern Bakery in March, Rosmould in June, Interlight Russia / Intelligent Building Russia as well as Techtextil and Heimtextil Russia in September.

All of which will probably not be able to take place.

Back on the growth path

At the same time, the management of Messe Frankfurt was determined on Tuesday to get the company back on its growth path as quickly as possible.

"In order to achieve this, we will concentrate fully on our profitable sources of revenue, which we can now control and develop on our exhibition center without additional financial resources from our shareholders or other third parties," says Wolfgang Marzin, CEO of Messe Frankfurt, according to one Message.

To this end, the management has implemented a series of complementary measures that were prepared during the months of the business standstill and relate to the portfolio of events and complementary services.

So the Hypermotion is continued in a different form.

The socially relevant topics of modern mobility concepts will be further developed as conference topics and will continue to make an important contribution to social and professional discourse in the future.

Musikmesse Frankfurt will not be continued.

The reasons for this are "market-related".

The market structure has changed in such a way that an economic perspective for the product can no longer be expected, according to the justification.

The successful Music China, which makes a significant contribution to the value of the company, remains unaffected.

"If necessary, two or more events at the same time"

"The consumer goods fairs have already been grouped together under the motto "Home of Consumer Goods", a concept that meets with national and international approval and interest in the markets," said Detlef Braun, Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt.

“Our site is developed in such a way that we can also accommodate two or more events at the same time if required.

Starting with Prolight + Sound, Messe Frankfurt has 135 trade fairs, congresses and concerts coming up in 2022 in Frankfurt alone,” adds Uwe Behm, also Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt.

With the decisions to streamline the portfolio and reorganize the company's media services, for example - combined with a significantly expanded digital offering - Messe Frankfurt intends to concentrate entirely on profitable revenue generators.

It will promote its digital offerings, win new guest events for Frankfurt and devote itself to the future topics of sustainability and digitization.

What will become of the Frankfurt Fashion Week and the associated Frankfurt trade fairs remained unclear yesterday.