WORLD – Global Experience Specialists (GES) has acquired international AV specialist Blitz Communications, expanding its range of services further into the live events, conference and exhibition sector.
“GES has made a global strategic decision to go into the AV market with our newest acquisition, Blitz Communications,” GES Managing Director, Andy Gibb told CMW.
“They have a lot of clients in the live events market which we have strategically targeted. We have already collaborated with them for more than two years in events through sharing customers and services, so it was an obvious match.
“The decision for GES to initially move into the AV market was made in America at the back end of last year, but it has only been in the last three to four months that have we seriously looked into acquiring Blitz.”
Gibb told CMW the plan is to leave Blitz as a stand alone business.
“They will be Blitz Communications, a GES company. Their management team will remain in place and there will be no closure of offices or redundancies.
Blitz has offices in London and Manchester and is the in-house AV service provider at five major UK conference and exhibition venues including Excel London, Earls Court, Olympia London, Manchester Central, and The NEC – where Blitz was recently appointed as the in-house technical event staging partner.
Paul Hutton, Managing Director of Blitz Communications said: “Blitz has grown and developed since its formation in 1989 and during that time we have had a close working relationship with GES. Both companies share a similar business culture and ethos.
“We are thrilled to be part of GES’ dynamic and customer-focused organisation and we are looking forward to growing the overall business through the new opportunities the acquisition presents.”
Photo: L:R Jason Popp, GES Executive Vice President – International, Ashok Makanji, Blitz Chief Financial Officer, Steve Moster, GES Chief Executive Officer, Paul Hutton, Blitz Managing Director.
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