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To serve our world, nurturing relationships and developing opportunities.
Our Purpose
To Serve
We work on the philosophy of Servant Leadership and look to create a set of practices that enrich the lives of individuals, help build a better organisation and ultimately create a more just and caring world.
Our World
Our world are the communities we serve, the sectors we work in, the individuals we work with and our employees who make it happen – our world is important to us.
Nurturing Relationships
We work with our world to create deep relationships that establish and deliver growth and positive outcomes. Together, we want to ensure this is true for our exhibitors, our visitors, our partners and our staff.
Developing opportunities
We believe in creating a set of circumstances that make it possible to succeed. This represents not only delivering first class events – which create opportunities for our clients – but also designing our business around creating opportunities for our staff and partners to thrive.
Our Vision
To be our communities’ long term strategic partner throughout the year, creating opportunities for them to connect, transact and engage with the right people to achieve success.
Our Values
Ethically
Commercial
We have ambition, a will to win, the desire to achieve success for our clients, partners and ourselves – but not at any cost. Our decisions go beyond profitability and are centred on respect, honesty, and a desire to have a positive impact on the world around us.
Growth
Mindset
We challenge ourselves with courage and curiosity to discover our full potential. Through training and mentorship, pursuing innovation and recognising the need to expand our outlook, we embrace a culture of continuous development.
Embrace Collaboration
Our relationships with our clients, employees and suppliers are a partnership with no exceptions. We challenge and support one another, even when it may be uncomfortable. By actively seeking out diverse views, both internally and externally, we do all we can to ensure a resilient outcome.
Empowerment
We encourage our people to take responsibility. We understand that to find faster, better and more nimble ways to work we need to be open to ideas. Our employees are our greatest asset, and we encourage our teams to take these chances and challenge themselves without fear of failure.
Greville's Story
Our company is named after Henry Greville Montgomery, a pioneer in the brickwork business, who in 1895 staged a Building Trades Exhibition at the Royal Agricultural Hall and later Olympia in order to help the struggling West Country clay traders during a period of depression. Greville mobilised his political contacts as a Liberal Party member to highlight these workers’ needs by giving them space at the exhibition – an effort that impressed the public so much he went on to win a seat for the Liberals in the 1906 election in the Tory Bridgwater stronghold, becoming a popular MP. 125 years later, his values and legacy of helping others by providing the opportunities they needed to survive and prosper lives on through today’s Montgomery Group.
Our History
1789
Our Manchester Square buildings (which is still The Montgomery Group Headquarters today) were completed and first occupied by aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution. Manchester.
1895
Montgomery’s Founder; Greville Montgomery MP launched the company.
Greville Montgomery MP launched the First Building Show at Westminster in 1895 to support the ailing clay workers whose Institute of Clayworkers he had founded that year.
1897
The First Building Show then became the world’s first biennial show.
1903
We launched our first mining show known as the Colliery Show.
1909
The Building Exhibition was visited by the Prince & Princess of Wales shortly before their accession, on the death of King Edward VII, as King George V and Queen Mary.
1930
The only architectural work ever carried out in Britain by Le Corbusier was a stand at the 1930 Building show for Venesta. This marked the arrival of ‘modernism’ to the UK.
1935
Hotel, Restaurant & Catering (later called Hotelympia) was launched and is the longest running Trade Show in the UK.
1937
One of the only public duties of King Edward VIII in 1937 was visiting the Building Exhibition at Olympia.
1967
Molly and Bryan Montgomery founded Specialised Exhibitions (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, which is still part of The Montgomery Group and is one of South Africa’s leading exhibition organisers.
1968
Sandy Angus, now Montgomery Group Chairman, joins the company.
1976
Lord Louis Mountbatten tore up his notes at IDEA (International Domestic Equipment and Appliance Show) to demonstrate the new Dyson Vacuum cleaner, which was launched at the event.
1979
IFE was launched and still runs today as the leading food & drink trade event.
1984
The Liverpool Garden Festival attracted 3.4m visitors – the largest event in the UK since the Great Exhibition of 1851.
1986
David Hockney provides the design for the poster for Art LA.
1988
The Queen Mother visits Hotelympia.
1989
Prince Charles visited IFE (twice over the years!).
1990
Hotelympia was visited by Princess Diana – Olympia had suffered some damage to the roof that year from a particularly bad storm and attendees had to evacuate, mostly to the pub!
1992
Chef Gordon Ramsey wins National Chef of the Year at Salon Culinaire.
1996
Nelson Mandela visited Electra Mining Africa.
1999
Fresh RM is launched as a joint venture company between Montgomery and Reed Exhibitions.
Speciality & Fine Food Fair was launched.
2006
Our first show in Libya was launched to tackle the oil & gas and infrastructure sectors.
2007
2008
The launch of Art HK which went on to become Art Basel Hong Kong
2011
Montgomery purchased Reed Exhibitions share of Fresh RM and Fresh Montgomery was born (now known as Montgomery Food, Drink & Hospitality).
2013
The launch edition of Electra Mining Botswana was attended by 0.1% of the entire population of Botswana and made headline news that night.
2014
Delivered the first Festival of Business in Liverpool in conjunction with the UK Government. Launched the Africa Rising event as part of the festival.
2015
Ran our first humanitarian aid event when Montgomery purchased AidEx, and Montgomery Aid & Development was born.
We celebrated our 120th birthday in style in the Manchester Square Gardens.
2016
Acquired the full ownership of the Independent Hotel Show.
Montgomery wins most Memorable Event Moment for our 120th Birthday Celebrations – which was a new award for the AEO Award.
2017
The recently-launched Montgomery Asia launched their first events; Speciality & Fine Food Fair Asia and Restaurant, Pub & Bar Asia.
2018
Montgomery acquires FIT Show – the leading event for the window, door and flat glass sector.
Montgomery Group Managing Director Damion Angus is 2018 Chair of the Association of Event Organisers (AEO).
2019
Independent Hotel Show Amsterdam is launched.
2021
Winner of the Organiser of the Century Award.