Hannover. After years of expansion into markets outside Germany, Deutsche Messe is now realigning its organizational structures to reflect its increasingly international outlook. Under the new arrangements, Dr. Andreas Gruchow will retain groupwide responsibility for all of Deutsche Messe’s structures outside Germany – i.e. its foreign subsidiaries, including its stake in the SNIEC exhibition center in Shanghai, China – as well as for the company’s global network of sales partners and for Mergers & Acquisitions. The company’s trade fairs worldwide will be grouped into several core fields of expertise or brand families, each overseen by a single brand manager. As a result of this restructuring, there has been a change in Managing Board-level responsibility for LIGNA, the world’s leading trade fair for machinery, plant and tools for the woodworking and timber processing industries, and DOMOTEX, the world’s leading trade fair for carpets and floor coverings. These two events will now form part of Gruchow’s portfolio, as will INTERSCHUTZ (fire prevention, disaster relief, rescue, safety and security), LABVOLUTION with BIOTECHNICA (lab technology and biotechnology) and didacta (education). Dr. Gruchow is now also in charge of several high-potential tradeshow segments that fall outside Deutsche Messe’s core fields of expertise: Heating/Climate Control/Air Conditioning, Metalworking & Metallurgy, Automotive/Commercial Vehicles, and Safety, Security & Fire.

Apart from the Germany-based LIGNA show, the Woodworking/Wood Processing field of expertise includes several shows outside Germany. Specifically, these are Magna ExpoMueblera in Mexico, ExpoDrev RUSSIA, LESPROM-UURAL Professional in Russia, Expobois in France, WoodWorld South Africa and WoodMac China. Similarly, in addition to the flagship DOMOTEX show in Hannover, the Floor Coverings field of expertise includes DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR in Shanghai and DOMOTEX Turkey in Gaziantep. The Safety, Security & Fire field of expertise comprises INTERSCHUTZ in Hannover plus the REAS show in Montichiari, Italy, the EDURA show Kielce, Poland, and the afac show in Brisbane, Australia.

Dr. Gruchow first joined Deutsche Messe’s Managing Board in 2008, taking on overall responsibility for the company’s foreign business (trade fairs outside Germany). Since that time, Deutsche Messe’s foreign business has more than doubled. In fact, sales from the company's foreign business segment have surged by 40 percent since 2011 alone, taking the annual total to over 60 million euros across more than 70 events.

As regards the other Managing Board Members, Dr. Jochen Köckler is responsible for the Manufacturing Industry, Energy and Materials Handling & Logistics fields of expertise, which have HANNOVER MESSE, the Energy show and CeMAT, respectively, as their Hannover-based flagships. Prior to the reshuffle, Köckler was also in charge of LIGNA, DOMOTEX and various other events. Oliver Frese remains in charge of ICT & Digital Business, which includes the CeBIT show in Hannover and all of Deutsche Messe’s ICT-themed events outside Germany. The fourth member of the Board, Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, is also its Chairman and thus retains overall responsibility for Finance & Legal, Marketing & PR, Human Resources & Organization, Internal Audit, Strategic Program Management and the Digital Office.