Maritz and Grass Roots form European alliance
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Two big names in Meeting, Events and Performance Improvement have announced a major deal designed to strengthen, promote and genuinely fulfill global services.
Maritz Inc. (Maritz), one of the oldest and probably the largest companies in the meetings, events and incentive sector (ME&I), and The Grass Roots Group PLC (Grass Roots), the UK headquartered multi-national performance improvement company have announced a unique alliance that will strengthen their ability to meet the growing demand from multi-national clients for international programmes.
Maritz, headquartered in St Louis, USA, has created a closer working relationship with Grass Roots by selling a controlling stake in its ME&I businesses in Europe to Grass Roots, and in turn taking a minority equity interest in Grass Roots. The agreement does not include the Maritz Research business, which has offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Maritz strength in the USA has been in ME&I, market and customer research, learning solutions and loyalty marketing. Grass Roots has become the largest European player providing full service performance improvement, expanding from its No1 position in the UK to reach across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
Maritz operations in ME&I in the UK, Germany, France and Spain, will become part of The Grass Roots Group PLC. The move will provide a powerful full service presence in the key markets of Germany, France, Spain and the Maritz original base in Europe, Marlow, UK. Grass Roots will operate the former Maritz businesses in the United Kingdom and Germany under the Maritz brand.
With the addition of the four businesses, The Grass Roots Group predicted revenues for the up-coming fiscal will be 350 million Euros, further strengthening its market leadership.
Maritz with its Fortune 500 blue chip client list will benefit from having a strong new partner to assist the cream of American corporations to service their needs on a growing global scale. Maritz is to remain a shareholder in the business being acquired by Grass Roots, and will take a small stake in its new global partner.
