Germany’s NürnbergMesse has reported record-breaking sales of €368m for 2024 and unprecedented investment to the tune of €100m in its exhibition grounds, digitalisation/IT/AI, and event portfolio. The company is also predicting a successful second half-year thanks to excellent registration numbers for the autumn fairs which, it says, could add up to the highest revenue in an odd-numbered year in the company’s history.
2024 was the NürnbergMesse Group’s 50th anniversary year and it has reported that, measured against the KPIs for exhibitors, visitors and square metres, that it had “substantially outperformed the previous record figures from before the pandemic”.
To continue this development the company said it had undertaken major investments in its exhibition grounds, “to make the most of the tailwind from the highly successful anniversary year.” Peter Ottmann, CEO of NürnbergMesse Group, added that, despite the lower number of events in 2025, the group was expecting a consolidated revenue of around €350m, the highest in an odd-numbered year to date.
In 2024, the NürnbergMesse Group organised 154 events worldwide (2023: 177; 2022: 155), attended by 33,196 exhibitors (2023: 28,135; 2022: 23,457) and about 1.6 million visitors (2023: 1.3 million) on a display area of some 1.2m sq.m. (2023: 904,466 sq.m). This led to record-breaking revenues of €367.8m in 2024 (2023: €265.1m; 2022: €257.1m), broken down as follows: NürnbergMesse and partner events (40%), MesseService (trade fair services) including domestic subsidiaries Holtmann and Lehrieder (25%), international subsidiaries (18%), and guest events and NürnbergConvention (17%).
In fiscal 2024, the NürnbergMesse Group generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €56.8m (2023: €28.4m 2022: €32.3m).
Recent investments have included building the venue’s own photovoltaic system on the roofs of Halls 3 and 11, the PV modules on top of the multi-storey ‘Nord’ car park, and a battery storage system with an output of around 7 MWh that is already operating. In the next phase, solar panels will be installed on the roofs of Halls 7A and 12 in 2025.
The eco-friendly solar power generated in-house at the exhibition centre is currently being used for example, to power 119 electric charging stations, 68 of which were built in 2024. Another 60 charging stations are set to follow in 2025, making NürnbergMesse one of the trailblazers for electric charging infrastructure in the German trade fair industry.
The energy-efficient refurbishment and modernisation of the new ‘NXT74’ employee centre is scheduled for completion by the end of the first quarter of 2026, allowing employees to move from their temporary location in Lina-Ammon-Strasse to the new work environment at the exhibition centre.
The Nuremberg exhibition venue hosted 71 of the company’s 154 events in 2024, an average of 1.3 events a week of which 26 were trade fairs. The international subsidiaries of the NürnbergMesse Group held a total of 55 events.
Through the acquisition of WEKA Fachmedien GmbH, now operating as componeers GmbH, NürnbergMesse has not only ensured that the embedded world trade fair will continue to be held in Nuremberg in the long term.
The European Coatings Show also reinforced the argument that trade fairs are indispensable platforms for various industries, especially in times of crisis. The trade fair for paint and coatings, which primarily attracts visitors from the automotive and construction industries, saw a 20% increase in exhibitors. Enforce Tac, the trade fair for internal and external, reinforced its growing importance for the defence industry with an around 40% increase in exhibitors and visitor numbers that were up by more than 50%.
Customer service
At more than €70m, services made a substantial contribution to overall revenues in 2024. In this context, NürnbergMesse is committed to having a strong network of service partners and in 2025 is investing in the reorganisation of online sales processes with a shop environment for its customers that will go live in the second half of fiscal 2025. Simultaneously, the company is systematically expanding its data and AI capabilities to tap into new potential and improve its competitiveness.
Personnel
The workforce increased slightly yet again to 1,246 employees in the NürnbergMesse Group (2024: 1,181).
NürnbergMesse says it is looking optimistically at the second half of fiscal 2025, pointing to the growth trend at the it-sa Expo&Congress. An additional exhibition hall for this trade fair for IT security with a display area of 2,300 sqm is already fully booked.
KOMMUNALE, Germany’s largest trade fair for public administration and municipal supplies, will feature a third hall for the first time in 2025, and a new addition to the exhibition venue in Nuremberg is Interlift, the world’s leading trade fair for the lift industry, which will be held in October as a guest event by AFAG.
Internationally, many events are already exceeding expectations. The Construlev Expo, a trade fair for Brazil’s construction industry, will be held in São Paulo for the first time, 4-6 November. And in India, KOLKATAWOOD will make its debut, 12-14 September 2025.
NürnbergMesse has also announced a new brand identity, as of 15 July. Under the tagline ‘Hello Opportunities’, the company is launching a visual rebranding while attempting to position itself more clearly as a platform for innovation, connection and growth. “Hello Opportunities is more than just a brand claim – it is our commitment to our customers and partners for an inspiring, shared future – on-site and online,” says Peter Ottmann, CEO of NürnbergMesse Group.
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