The Weka Specialist Publishing House for Public Authorities and Industry was founded by Werner and Karin Mützel in 1973. Conceived as a German specialist publishing group with an international focus, Weka has grown to become a corporate group with more than 20 companies throughout Europe offering a wide range of business services in the B2B and B2C markets.
Analysis & Key Developments
Financial
Weka closed fiscal 2013 with a stable performance. Group revenues accounted for 229 million EUR against 230 million EUR in 2012. Revenues generated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland accounted for 186 million EUR against 190 million EUR in 2012. After the Weka Media Group, a division of Weka Holding, experienced declines in sales for some years, the cross-media B2B and B2C solution provider achieved a turnaround and recorded gains.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
On July 1, 2013 the French Weka operation, Editions Weka, acquired the Paris-based MB Formation, an advanced education provider for public servants.
In January 2014, legal publisher Deubner, an imprint of Weka Holding, purchased the client information tax accounting products from WIADOK.
Weka acquired Comundi, a seminar and training company in Paris, to become the third-largest seminar provider in France.
Digital
Over the last ten years, Weka’s share of print business decreased from 82% to 30%, while digital products accounted for more than 50%. The company expects a 3-4% rise in digital in 2015.
Earlier Developments
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
During 2012, the Weka group acquired a number of companies across Europe. The French Weka daughter CMT bought Agricommand, located next to Marseille. Agricommand, which specializes in online services for agricultural chemistry, is the fifth French company to be incorporated. Weka Holding bought Info - Techno, an Austrian database vendor for building materials and tenders; Blogwerk, a Swiss social media agency; Cologne-based fotocommunity, the largest online photo community with 1.3 million members and 140 million hits each month; and Hoppenstedt, a publisher of B2B journals founded in 1926, purchased from the Swedish Bisnode Group. Hoppenstedt will now operate under the brand Weka Business Medien.
Weka’s media division acquired the German seminar vendor TQM Training & Consulting, which covers 100 subjects such as industrial safety, innovation, quality, and risk management.
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