On July 18, Kingpins and Messe Frankfurt together announced that we agreed to sell a minority share in our company to Messe Frankfurt, organizer of Texworld and many other trade fairs. The  announcement day also happened to be my brother’s birthday —  so it was a lovely day on many fronts. In addition, Messe Frankfurt threw a really sweet rooftop party for their team and ours, which included my family and our trade show and our textiles associates. We all felt blessed that we are now associates with people as nice and kind as those from Messe Frankfurt and Texworld. 

Rest assured, since the time of the sales agreement, nothing has changed at Kingpins. By that I mean, no new “plots” are being hatched. Instead, we now have more eyes on our ideas that were already being developed. There has been no discussion to relocate Kingpins inside Texworld; no talk of multiplying our exhibitors or to bring Texworld  to our or Kingpins to their show.  Rather, there is a kind and happy dialogue between colleagues about sharing ideas about how to help each other and brainstorming about “what could be?” 

In short — and to be really clear and not cute about this at all — our investors love what we do, they love the way we do it and they want us to keep doing what we do. They do not want us to change. 

From our side, we are grateful for Messe Frankfurt’s contribution, their confidence, trust, support, experience, and the lessons we can garner from being part of an 800-year company. 

Kingpins will always be the Kingpins you know. But with or without Messe Frankfurt’s investment, you know we are always trying new things, we’re not afraid to take chances all with the goal of improving the industry we all love. 

Thanks,
Andrew