UK exhibition business Clarion Events has bought the outstanding shares of the ZOW furniture supplies and interior design exhibitions business from its German founder Peter Meyer.
Clarion bought most of the operation 16 months ago, plus ZOW sister shows the FMB machinery fair and Focus Kitchen & Bath. Now Mr Meyer, 61, has decided to part ways with the new UK owner and resign as managing director of its German subsidiary Clarion Survey GmbH.
“To create the ZOW network of sales exhibitions from nowhere, and pilot it into a safe port with Clarion after the damage suffered in the global financial crisis, is to Mr Meyer’s undisputable merit,” said Clarion. “We respect his decision [to sell], and thank him for his commitment.”
Mr Meyer said he wanted to operate independently and develop his consultancy businesses’ PH Meyer and Material ConneXion. He is also managing director of the EPLF (Association of European Manufacturers of Laminate Flooring).
Clarion’s purchase covered the ZOW shows in Germany and Turkey, as well as the licence for the Russian event. It described exhibitor bookings for all three as “brilliant”.
It added that the Focus Kitchen & Bath event needed to “reinvent itself to ajust to changing market conditions”, but that FMB was a “rising star’.
