The presentation of the East Flanders "Trends Gazelles Award 2011" took place in Ghent, Belgium.
Artexis, the operator of Flanders expo and organiser of – amongst others – the fairs Art Brussels, EMIF (European Meetings Industry Fair) and Promo Factory, won this unique award in the "midsize companies" category.
Eric Everard, Executive Chairman of the Artexis Group, and Dirk Van Roy, CEO of Artexis, accepted the award with pride:
"Artexis is seeing strong growth thanks to a continuous focus on our four pillars: follow your mission, think strategically, motivate your employees, and work closely with your stakeholders", says Dirk Van Roy.
Since 2001, Artexis has grown its turnover from 4 to 64 million euro, and its workforce from just a handful of employees to nearly 280 motivated members of staff. Artexis now has a presence in 14 countries. These evaluation criteria were the deciding factor for the jury.
The strong and steady growth of Artexis in the past years is founded on 4 pillars, Dirk explains. First and foremost, Artexis remains focused on its mission: creating "ultimate meeting and marketplaces". Preparing and achieving a strategic five-year plan is an essential part of this.
Achieving the targets requires passionate employees and the ability to think with a group culture, while keeping the 8 Artexis values in mind. Finally, the positive interaction with our stakeholders strengthens the cooperation, allowing us to achieve concrete improvements and results.
Trends selects the 200 fastest growing companies from the Trends Top 100,000. These companies are included in a ranking and awarded the Trends Gazelles 2011 status.
Fast-growing companies contribute significantly to the economic dynamism of a region. These "Gazelles" are the powerhouses of innovation, giving employment a boost and often acting as inspiring role models for other companies.
In each province, one leading company is selected in each category (small, midsize and large companies) as the Trends Gazelles Ambassador.
Artexis was nominated in the 'midsize companies' category and managed to see off some strong competition.
During the exclusive ceremony at the ICC Ghent, Artexis was announced as the latest Trends Gazelles Ambassador for 2011 by Johan Van Overtveldt (Editor in chief Trends-magazine).
After the victory there was a surge of activity on Twitter to spread the good news.
