FedEx Kinko's Makes Push Into Tradeshows
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 1/9/2006
FedEx Kinko's has had a presence in the tradeshow industry for several years, but the company's current global expansion plans include an increased push into the lucrative business of convention printing and shipping.
FedEx completed its $2.4 billion acquisition of Kinko's from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in February 2004, adding the company that started out as a string of copy centers to its three shipping subsidiaries: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight.
The combination of the two led to what FedEx Kinko's calls information logistics, or the integration of printing and shipping services to offer customers a completed job through one company, from conception to delivery.
The company's office and print services division will employ the information logistics business model, a hub-and-spoke model encompassing 1,500 digitally connected locations for placing orders, several large production centers — including a flagship facility recently opened in Memphis, Tenn., FedEx's headquarters city — and the 1,200 or so mail stations, air express hubs, delivery terminals and service centers of FedEx's transportation divisions.
FedEx Kinko's sees lucrative potential for this combined network in meetings and exhibitions.
"Since the acquisition, we've really turned our attention to this market," said Esther Palomo-Meska, senior marketing manager for FedEx Kinko's, who manned the company booth at December's annual meeting of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management. "FedEx knew conventions offered transient opportunity, but since the advent of information logistics, we've embraced it as a solid market. We're going to be expanding."
The company has for some time run the business center at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center, the second largest exhibit hall in the country according to the Tradeshow Week Major Exhibit Hall Directory. The current contract with the OCCC expires in the spring of 2008.
Palomo-Meska said FedEx Kinko's would continue to focus on facilities, but also hopes to capture more spots in exhibitor kits as show managers' preferred providers of printing and shipping services. It already has several such arrangements with major clients in the medical, fast-food and financial services industries.
FedEx Kinko's account representatives in regional and industrial markets will target meeting planners, convention managers and exhibition organizers in their areas.
"There is no other company that does it all, soup to nuts, for this market," noted Palomo-Meska.
The industry has dozens of small and midsize signage and graphics specialists, as well as many large shipping companies. So far, the biggest players to combine these services have been general contractors Freeman, a closely held company, and GES Exposition Services, a subsidiary of Viad.
