It’s been a busy year so far for Marketplace Events, which been actively acquiring even more home and garden shows to add to its already extensive consumer event portfolio, including its most recent purchase of the Minnesota Home & Patio Show from Cenaiko Productions.

The four-day show, which celebrates its 40^thanniversary in 2019, runs annually in February at the Saint Paul RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minn.  

Marketplace Events already operates four other shows in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market including two holiday shows and two other home shows.

“Of the 32 markets in which we operate, Minneapolis is among the very best,” said Tom Baugh, CEO of Marketplace Events, which is known as the largest producer of B2C home shows in North America. 

He continued, “We have a great sales team based in Minneapolis and the majority of our U.S. marketing team is also located here. Adding the St. Paul event was an easy decision. We look forward to ramping up quickly.”

Led by Show Manager Lauren Wallerius, the Minnesota Home & Patio Show will be run by the same team that runs the Minneapolis Home + Remodeling Show, held in January at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the long-running Minneapolis Home + Garden Show, held in February at the Minneapolis Convention Center.   

This is the fourth acquisition of the year for Marketplace Events, which purchased two shows in Seattle and Tacoma in June; three Atlanta shows in early May and two shows in Montreal, which were announced in February. 

The company has acquired or launched 26 shows since being purchased by Sentinel Capital Partners in February 2016 and currently produces 42 consumer home shows in the U.S., 16 in Canada and nine holiday shows.

According to Baugh, MPE’s new parent company has been supportive of its strategic buying spree. 

“We are vigilant about business development and work hard to maintain a deep understanding of what’s happening in the top 150 North American consumer show markets,” Baugh said.

He continued, “Marketplace Events is currently expanding into home and holiday consumer show markets (existing or new to MPE) where we see opportunities to improve customer value. When we get that right, growth (intrinsic and commercial) always follows. MPE’s acquisition pipeline is robust and most important, our track record of growing what we’ve acquired is impressive. Bottom line: MPE is proving consumer home and holiday shows can be successfully scaled. With so much opportunity in front of us, it’s an exciting and busy time for our company.”

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