HELSINKI, FINLAND — Nordic event agency group LIWLIG has acquired Danish event agency Welcome A/S, with revenue of around €6 million. Welcome provides event and meeting services for most industries, with a special emphasis on the healthcare, IT, finance, industry, and shipping industries. The acquisition is an important strategic milestone for LIWLIG Group in its Nordic expansion, as it enters the Danish market, and thus has operations in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Welcome’s owners will continue working in the company while becoming shareholders of the LIWLIG Group.
Welcome joins Finnish and Swedish market leaders Tapaus and Eventyr Nine Yards in the LIWLIG Group, as well as previously acquired Norwegian 6. Sans. LIWLIG Group event agencies produce over 1,000 events in around 50 countries yearly. The group aims to reach an annual revenue of around €100 million in 2023, and it has around 260 employees.
Welcome will provide new services within LIWLIG Group in the form of facilitated events, which will be available in all Nordic markets. In addition, the acquisition brings the global competencies of LIWLIG Group to Welcome’s clients, bringing a real competitive advantage in a Danish market mostly populated by local event agencies.
“We are incredibly excited to announce this strategic milestone, and finally being able to call LIWLIG a truly Nordic event agency group. Welcome is a great fit from cultural, management, and business perspectives, strengthening the whole LIWLIG Group and giving us the perfect entrance into the Danish market. With this talent, we can offer unmatched creative event services for our customers, in the Nordics and all around the world,” said Timo Aalto, Managing Director and CEO of Tapaus & LIWLIG Group.
“This is the perfect match at the perfect time for Welcome. We have seen increasing internationalization from our customers for some years, and as part of LIWLIG Group, we can offer more global event services. We are very much looking forward to becoming part of LIWLIG Group’s ambitious growth plans and contributing with our knowhow, in addition to being able to serve our customers even better,” said Jannik Seifert, Partner at Welcome.
The pandemic made events more important than ever – with no growth limits in sight
After the initial shock of the Covid-19 pandemic paved the way for a drastic decrease in physical events and the rise of virtual events, the event marketing industry has bounced back. LIWLIG Group has grown significantly, gaining more customers and projects, recruiting new employees, and continuing strategic investments.
“You could say the pandemic was the best and worst thing that could have happened to the event industry. Companies used to take events for granted before, but when the pandemic made in-person events impossible, businesses really understood how important these gatherings actually were in creating engagement, commitment, and trust among people. Now, events are more popular than ever, as companies have rediscovered the value of in-person meetings between colleagues, customers, and other stakeholders,” Timo continued.
LIWLIG Group on track to becoming the first carbon-negative event agency in the Nordics
In addition to becoming the largest and leading event agency in the Nordics, LIWLIG Group is also showing the way regarding sustainable development. The company’s carbon footprint related to its own operations and offices is already carbon neutral. Around 50% of LIWLIG-arranged customer events are now compensated with a goal to reach 100% by the year 2025. As the only event agency in the Nordics, the group has developed an emission calculator to identify the climate impacts of event productions. In addition, LIWLIG also has a reuse rate calculator for calculating how much material can be reused and recycled, as well as a guide to low-emission event production, available to anyone who wishes to use them on the company website.
“We want to be a pioneer in the event industry and make it more sustainable with solutions that really work. The days when event materials were thrown away after a single use are long gone – nowadays an increasing amount of materials can be recycled and reused. Every industry needs to do its part to tackle the challenge of climate change, and at LIWLIG Group, we want to be part of the solution, not the problem,” Timo concluded.
