Olma trade fairs: Setting the course for the future

Eastern Switzerland is pleased, the press praises, the voters are satisfied. The planned new exhibition hall 1 over the highway will become an identification object for the region. It is to be built as a spectacular structure, similar to the sophisticated Palexpo in Geneva, over the A1 highway and opened in 2024.

With this new hall, Olma Messen St. Gallen will strengthen its position in the national trade fair competition, eliminate space problems for the flagship trade fairs "OLMA" and Tier&Technik and provide the public with the much sought-after comfort for visiting trade fairs and congresses.

10,000 visitors, capacity for 80 percent of the trade fairs and most of the trade events in Switzerland, the new exhibition hall 1 will carry and it will lift Olma Messen St. Gallen into the infrastructure top league of the Swiss exhibition industry. Hall 1 will be the largest column-free exhibition and event hall in German-speaking Switzerland and a jewel in Switzerland's competitive exhibition and event market. When Hall 1 is completed in 2024, it will also be possible to hold congresses in parallel.

This was unique: On March 4, 2018, the population of the city of St. Gallen voted yes to a loan of 18 million Swiss francs with a landslide of 72 percent. In February 2018, the cantonal council had approved a loan of 12 million francs. The overall Hall 1 project amounts to around 121 million francs, including the 42 million franc freeway overlay to a total of 163 million francs.

30 million will be financed by the city and canton of St. Gallen, the rest of 133 million Swiss francs a bank loan of 100 million. 33 million come from the cash flow of Olma Messen St. Gallen. This is possible because Olma Messen is in an excellent financial position and debt-free, and to date has no outstanding bank loans. In comparison, the exhibition center in Zurich cost 104.9 million Swiss francs in 1998, that in Basel 450 million Swiss francs, the Palexpo in Geneva with its successive extension and further construction was in similar dimensions to Basel.

Olma Messen St. Gallen is doing well. In the 2018 financial year, twelve trade fairs were held, nine of which were the company's own and three guest fairs, as well as three own events with co-organizers and 125 other events such as congresses, conferences, concerts and festive occasions. Sales in 2018 amounted to 30.6 million Swiss francs. The annual result presents itself successfully with a cash flow of 8.6 million francs, but is slightly below the previous year. The CongressEvents St.Gallen division recorded an increase in the number of events by a pleasing 16 percent, which is a record. The positive decisions of the voters of the city of St.Gallen and the St.Gallen Cantonal Council for the requested financial contributions were milestones on the way to the realization of the "Olma-Neuland" project.

The clocks tick differently at Olma Messen St. Gallen St. Gallen: In contrast to the MCH Group's cancelled public exhibitions in Basel, Zurich and Lausanne, the flagship event OLMA and the spring exhibition OFFA are a success with stable visitor numbers, OLMA with its breathtaking figure of 350,000 visitors per year and full trains from German-speaking Switzerland to St. Gallen an unrivaled phenomenon. Admittedly, the discontinuation of the car show after the last staging in November 2018 is a drop of bitterness. But it could soon be offset by the newly launched "Bierprobier" in September 2019. The maintenance of exhibition halls is an expensive business, they want to be operated. With events. That is also going well. CongressEvents St. Gallen achieved a record result in 2018 with 125 events.