Koelnmesse Benefits From International Success of Gamescom

Koelnmesse, partner of game at gamescom, has presented a successful balance sheet for 2024 and expects record figures for 2025. Gamescom is an important factor in this, with gamescom latam being an ‘outstanding example’ of the successful globalisation strategy.

With total sales of €365.8 million and a profit of €21.3 million, 2024 was a successful year for Koenmesse. The trade fair company, which is best known in the games industry for gamescom, announced the figures at its annual press conference. Like all trade fair companies in Germany, Koelnmesse has a wide range of its own and partner events. Nevertheless, the games industry and gamescom are among the absolute highlights for Koelnmesse. Alongside ISM, Spga+gafa and DMEXCO, gamescom is one of the leading international trade fairs based in Cologne.

Koelnmesse's international business also benefits from the games industry. The 2024 reporting period will see the debut of gamescom latam, which those responsible describe as an ‘outstanding example of the successful globalisation strategy’.

Koelnmesse is optimistic about 2025: 82 events are planned, including 60 of its own, 39 of which are planned abroad. "In the current financial year, Koelnmesse is aiming for a new record in sales revenue of around 450 million euros," says Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse. However, he also states: "The economic situation remains challenging, and small and medium-sized enterprises, which traditionally use trade fairs as a gateway to the world, are under considerable pressure. Of course, we are also feeling the effects: increased costs, bureaucratisation and trade and customs policies are dampening investment and consumer sentiment, not only in Germany. We are also noticing this pressure on the cost side and therefore expect results to remain at the 2023 level at best."

However, Koelnmesse's long-term plans remain ambitious. By 2040, more than €1 billion is to be invested in the Cologne site, even though new halls and the new Confex conference and exhibition centre, which hosts devcom, for example, have only just been opened in recent years. Koelnmesse itself has adopted the ‘level35’ corporate strategy. The declared goal is to be among the top 5 trade fair companies with their own grounds in terms of both turnover and profit by 2025. "We are already achieving this in the strong, odd-numbered trade fair years," says Oliver Frese, COO of Koelnmesse, "but our ambition is to raise turnover and profit to the top international level in the cyclically weaker, even-numbered years as well."