Global Experience Specialists (GES), a leading global event marketing company, announced on Sept. 17 the acquisition of Blitz Communications, a leading audio visual (AV) services provider for the live events industry in the UK and continental Europe.
Following the first day of operations as Blitz Communications, a GES global company, Steve Moster, president, GES, was pleased with the outcome.
“We had a fantastic day one of communications that was well-received by our clients, Blitz’s clients and our team members,” said Moster.
Revolving around client needs, discussions for the acquisition that would provide a full suite of services began during the first quarter of 2014. Its finalization allows GES to harness Blitz Communications’ experience in order to further penetrate the live event market including exhibitions, conferences, and consumer and corporate events.
Complementing GES’ offerings in North America, Moster noted that the acquisition will provide opportunities to expand customer sets for both companies overseas, where the official services contractor has offices in the UK, Amsterdam and the Middle East.
“The addition of Blitz Communications allows us to provide a full suite of AV services across the UK, Europe and the Middle East,” said Moster. “Providing AV services is a key part of our strategy to become the preferred full service partner for the global live events market, and the addition of Blitz complements our AV service in the U.S.”
Serving the live events market for 25 years, Blitz Communications has been an expert in the delivery of a wide range of creative AV services including specialist divisions, which provide digital media, lighting, theatre, set and stage, graphics, audio and video.
“The acquisition of Blitz Communications combines a full offering of audio visual services with our existing range of services, allowing GES to offer an increasingly comprehensive and convenient approach to service delivery for our live events clients across the U.K., Europe and the Middle East,” commented Jason Popp, executive vice president of international business, GES. “With the addition of Blitz, we have immediately gained a well-established and leading position in the U.K. audio visual market.”
A well-recognized name in the market, the UK live-events AV provider will be known as Blitz Communications, a GES global company. According to Moster, it was important to maintain the identity established around Blitz Communications.
“Blitz has built a strong reputation in the live events market by helping to stage exhibitions, product launches, awards dinners, conferences, annual general meetings and road shows for some of the world’s leading organizations,” Moster added.
Blitz Communications Managing Director Paul Hutton expressed that the company, founded in 1989, has had a close working relationship with GES for decades.
“Both companies share a similar business culture, and we’re thrilled to be part of GES’ dynamic and customer-focused organization,” Hutton remarked. “We look forward to growing the overall business through the new opportunities the acquisition presents.”
“Culturally, we knew [Blitz Communications’] management team quite well, and they knew ours, so it was a perfect fit,” added Moster.
With offices in London and Manchester, U.K., Blitz Communications serves as the in-house audio visual service provider at five major U.K. conference and exhibition venues – ExCeL London, Earls Court, Olympia, Manchester Central and the NEC.
