There are few people who can genuinely say that they have shaped an industry , created some of the biggest and most innovative events companies and have worked with and mentored some of the events industry ’ s finest and creative leaders . My subject here can make that boast and more . He is currently chair of both Closer Still and Nineteen Events and was instrumental in the rise and rise of Blenheim Exhibitions which was ultimately the business that became UBM ( via more re-inventions than Madonna ). Most people who have achieved anything like what he has would be content to step back and bask in the satisfying glow of past glories – not Soar , his enthusiasm and drive remain undiminished .
So , Phil , you have been at the centre of , and witnessed , many
The secret of my success
Phil Soar has been there and done that , and then gone and done it again differently . Simon Parker sits down to take notes
key moments in our industry . And while I don ’ t want to get overly nostalgic can you give me a sense of what the industry looked like when you arrived on the scene at Blenheim ?
“ Very different . It was far more association-led , and the bigger players were EMAP and Reed but they were publishing groups – I doubt that anyone in the City even knew they owned exhibitions . There were one or two smaller , longer standing groups like Montgomery . But trade shows were totally off the radar . Exhibitions meant The Motor Show and The Ideal Home Show and the Boat Show – we were a consumer industry . “ Blenheim became the great watershed . It was the first time that there was a Stock Exchange listed company and the City and the FT took a disproportionate interest . In 1993 we made £ 50m profit and were also one of the 10 quoted companies with the highest margins in the UK and the highest profit per employee . This led to a newfound recognition of the sector and its investment potential . “ If you want a cameo of how valuations changed , in 1989 we bought Batimat ( the biggest show in France ) for £ 8m . The same year TV GUIDE – the small format magazine you see at all US checkouts – was sold for $ 3.7bn . In 2008 TV GUIDE was sold to a US PE house for $ 9m – having lost 99.8 % of its value . At that point Batimat was probably worth £ 300m – 40 times what we paid in 1989 .”
So , moving the story forward , one of the biggest changes recently which you have been involved in is the shift of ownership of many of our leading businesses to being owned by PE . How did we get their attention and how has that changed our industry ?
Diabetes Professional Care Exhibition by CloserStill
“ The question should really be : ‘ Why were they not interested much earlier ’? The first deals were in 1999 in the US , the first deal I did was in 2000 . In the 90s we were all simply running normal businesses and not necessarily looking to sell but trying to improve what we did and increase profitability . PE changed all that . The model is simple :
26 — June