Hyve Group's strong Q4 performance shows events have bounced back

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Oct 7, 2021

With the events industry bouncing back from the dark days of Covid, Hyve Group has also returned to delivering a strong performance in the final quarter of its fiscal year, it said Thursday.

During the quarter the group, which organises Pure London, Scoop and Moda, ran 11 shows across the UK, US, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, albeit on a smaller scale than their pre-pandemic levels, contributing to full-year revenues of around £55 million, “underpinned by the quality of the group's portfolio”.

Hyve noted its Western events “performed better-than-expected, driven by the significant pent-up demand for in-person events, coupled with strong customer relationships maintained throughout the pandemic”. 

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It said its first in-person events in the UK since the outbreak of the pandemic, including September’s Autumn Fair, have “received extremely positive feedback… which benefited from the pent-up demand to trade, network and learn”.

Hyve also said the return has shown three encouraging trends. It said many of the group's events have seen an increase in like-for-like customer spend, with customers who attended both 2019 and 2021 events spending comparatively more.

And there’s a direct correlation between event performance and the amount of time that has passed since restrictions have lifted (events continue to recover as markets and communities normalise).

Third, the group is seeing an increase in visitor density, meaning the number of visitors per exhibitor is higher post-pandemic and therefore delivering increased value to exhibitors.

CEO Mark Shashoua said: "We have delivered strong performances wherever we have been able to hold shows. Our omnichannel rollout continues at pace with the successful trial of our Curated Meetings programme at Autumn Fair, and we look forward to our next fully online networking event, Shoptalk Fall Meetup, taking place in October.

He added: “As we look ahead, we are in a much stronger financial and operational position and are excited to continue to connect vibrant industry communities, through our unmissable in-person events, online platforms and productive facilitated meeting programmes.”