Asia Comment
Is the Asian family saga
coming to an end?
Björn Kempe,
CEO ExposAsia
amily businesses have
been in our industry
since the very early
beginnings. With
entrepreneurs like Ned Kraus,
Stephen Brooks, Mr Zhang and Mr
Wang Mingliang, Sandy Angus,
‘The März-brothers’ in Germany,
Edward Liu in Singapore and many
more successful family owners, our
industry has thrived always attracted
new blood and incubated shows from
family-owned businesses.
In Asia – especially in India, China
and South East Asia – families have
long been the foundation of the
exhibition industry. With the recent
transactions for Mack Brooks, Dental
India going to Düsseldorf, Gift Show
in India for Messe Frankfurt, Textil
Show in India for Messe Frankfurt,
Energy Show SETA for Deutsche
Messe in Thailand – just to name a
few – the selling of family businesses
continues accross the region. I fear
the great family saga for exhibition
businesses is coming slowly to an end.
Most of the 60-plus-year-old
owners experience difficulties in
finding successors and/or feel the
growing pressure from even bigger
international giants, leaving a choice
of selling out or dying with the
businesses.
Fortunately, many families have
realised that they won’t be able to
win the growing competition from
Informa, Reed, Clarion and some
German Messe’s forever.
The recent deals in India and South
East Asia illustrate a trend that is
alarming because in many countries
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
the family traditional exhibition business are slowly
disappearing and may be extinct within five years.
Thailand already realised the need to grow new
local businesses as the majority of the B2B business
are already in the hand of international players.
Indian family companies have just started to see the
dark clouds and are getting prepared. Indonesia,
Malaysia and Chinese family-run businesses will be
under the hammer within a few months and EW
expects to report on that.
So, what is bringing the family saga to an end?
Not only the newly formed billion USD revenue
giants but also local constraints.
New venues have been mushrooming all over
the region in India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China
second tier cities and Shenzhen and recently Taipei
announcing the extension of their exhibition
centre as well. But are these venues
built for family businesses? Rather
not – the mega venues have been
built to cater the needs of the top
20 in our industry and state-owned
businesses.
Family businesses are not the good
and profitable tenants anymore
that they used to be 20 years ago
– nowadays venue owners prefer
corporate clients or big exhibition
organisers that have no problem
with booking 3-5 years in advance
and put deposits on the table. Family
owners are treated the same way
as big corporate clients or even
less well because of late payments,
but family companies have always
been ambitious to incubate, to try, to
experiment and to develop the local
markets. With more than US$100m
of family owned asset values likely
to be sold in India, China and South
East Asia within the next five years,
the markets will lose some great
inventors and families that have been
active in our industry for two or more
generations.
It’s important that venues are also
giving proper attention and support
to grow family businesses and that
the giants will treat their local family
partners nicely because our industry
needs innovations, incubations
and experiments to adapt the new
markets: often only family run
businesses are quick
enough to deliver this
to the market. Let us
hope the Asian family
saga does not come to
an end.
Issue 2 2019
31