Messe München and mac. brand spaces GmbH have agreed to jointly operate the Munich exhibition stand construction company meplan in the future. mac, the specialist for live communication from Langenlonsheim, is taking over 50 percent of the shares in the Messe München subsidiary. meplan and its more than 90 employees will remain at their location and retain their established name. “It makes strategic sense to combine meplan and mac.brand spaces GmbH, which holds a 50 percent stake in meplan,” say the two Managing Directors of Messe München, Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel: “We want to focus more on our core themes as a trade fair and have therefore sought and found a strong partner for stand construction who can work with meplan to drive forward the driving themes of our industry, sustainability and digitalization.” Stefan Trieb, CEO of the internationally active company mac. brand spaces, also sees the benefits of the new partnership: “It’s a win-win situation for both companies. We can contribute our strategic expertise for mutual benefit in the long term.”

“The new shareholder structure offers us the opportunity to make targeted investments in future topics such as sustainability and digitalization in order to continue to grow together,” explain the two meplan managing directors Siegbert Hieber and Sven Bonifer. The strong presence of mac at the major European trade fair venues will open up new resources and additional expertise for meplan. Munich will thus become an important location in Germany for mac. brand spaces after the headquarters in Langenlonsheim.

Sven Bonifer and Siegbert Hieber will remain managing directors of meplan, the Munich agency for brand spaces and exhibition stand construction. Messe München and mac. brand spaces each hold 50 percent of the shares. This also includes the 15 percent share in meplan previously held by Münchner Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen (GHM). “Messe München will thus remain active in the stand construction business,” Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel clarify: “meplan will remain in Messe München’s toolbox.”

meplan is an important stand construction company in Germany with a strong focus on Munich. With almost 9,000 system and design stands worldwide every year and around 150 trade fairs and congresses under its management, it has a wealth of expertise.

mac. brand spaces is one of the leading trade fair companies in Europe with activities all over the world and major customers at trade fairs in Munich. The company from Langenlonsheim is also a service partner for trade fairs in Frankfurt, Berlin and Hanover. The full-service trade fair service provider with 300 employees has branches in Vienna and Shanghai. With its own workshops, it has the entire value chain for sophisticated live marketing projects in-house. “We handle everything ourselves, from consulting and design to production and storage. This helps us a lot in designing sustainable brand appearances and makes us independent,” says Stefan Trieb.

The owner of mac, Pieroth Beteiligungsgesellschaft (PBG), expressly welcomed the transaction. Managing Director Andreas Pieroth: “For mac, this is another important step in setting the course for future growth.

“The new partners are also an ideal match in terms of corporate philosophy,” explain trade fair bosses Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel: “Both are driven by sustainability.” mac is a pioneer when it comes to sustainability in exhibition stand construction and sets many industry standards. A sustainability manager has been working for the company since 2005. Sustainability is a core responsibility for meplan. For example, it designed the recyclable WOODii exhibition stand: quickly available and cost-effective to implement. The system was most recently used at the IAA MOBILITY and EXPO REAL in Munich.

Messe München
Messe München is one of the leading international platforms for networking – in Munich and around the world, on site and digitally. True to its claim “Connecting Global Competence”, Messe München acts as a global networking platform and brings together decision-makers from all over the world. Messe München’s portfolio includes over 50 of its own trade fairs for capital and consumer goods as well as new technologies that deal with current social issues. These include the world’s leading trade fairs bauma, BAU, IFAT and ISPO Munich. Messe München’s more than 200 events each year attract around 50,000 exhibitors and around three million visitors. In addition, the IAA MOBILITY has been organized by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) in cooperation with Messe München GmbH since 2021. Messe München has one of the most modern exhibition grounds in the world and offers its customers four locations that meet all customer requirements individually: the entire exhibition grounds in Riem, the ICM – International Congress Center Messe München, the CCN – Conference Center North Messe München and the MOC – Event Center Messe München. In addition to its home market of Munich, Messe München is also very successful abroad and is active in all the world’s key growth markets with a presence in China, India, Brazil and Turkey. In total, Messe München is present in more than 100 countries with its network of affiliated companies and foreign representatives.

mac. brand spaces
mac. brand spaces GmbH is one of the leading international live communication companies in Germany. Based in Langenlonsheim near Frankfurt am Main, the multi-award-winning specialists plan and realize inspiring brand spaces for clients in 35 countries. As a full-service provider, mac. brand spaces covers the entire range of modern live communication services, from conception to realization of all presence and digital formats. mac. brand spaces is represented at all major German trade fair venues as well as branches in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna and Shanghai.