The injection of funds will need to be agreed at an extraordinary general assembly in March, together with a restructuring plan to help set the course for the venue’s future.

“This will allow us to invest in technology,” said Morgan Gromy, Luxexpo The Box’s director. “We will invest in equipment.  We have a physical platform, which is on the ground, and we are going to equip ourselves with a second platform, which will be digital. The goal is to bring the two platforms together. We are a physical meeting place, and we will have a digital counterpart.”

Luxexpo’s 38 staff will remain but will be subject to an internal reorganisation. This had been planned for 2023, but the pandemic accelerated the plans.

During the first wave of the pandemic, Luxexpo was converted into a treatment centre for coronavirus patients. Because of lockdown and other restrictions, it was able to host just 52 out of 115 events scheduled for 2020, welcoming 139,000 visitors where normally it would have expected 480,000.

“A large part of these numbers was realised in the first quarter,” said Gromy, before the pandemic hit Luxembourg. Turnover was at €2.6m, compared to expected turnover of €8.5m.

Still, Luxexpo improvised and managed to organise some successful events despite the coronavirus restrictions. A market hosted on the top floor of its car park in August 2020 drew more than 10,000 visitors.

“This showed, also on international level, that we were capable to react very quickly and organise events here in Luxembourg,” said Gromy, adding, however, that events hosted during the pandemic did not generate profit.

To respond to a growing need for corporate meeting rooms, Luxexpo arranged two rooms for socially distanced meetings, but it is not expected for activity to pick up until later this year.

“In the first quarter, there won’t be any activity,” said Gromy about larger events hosted at the venue. “We are reviewing the whole calendar. The crisis doesn’t impact all sectors in the same way. We are working on agility, in order to be able to ready the moment we are given the green light to restart events.”

A study by the Chamber of Commerce in 2018 said that 2,300 jobs were connected to Luxexpo and that the venue contributed €236m to the country’s GDP and €100.3m in revenue for the state.

The Chamber of Commerce is the principal shareholder (56.6%). Other shareholders include the City of Luxembourg (17.81%), BIL (4.98%), and half a dozen other smaller shareholders (Quintet, ING, BGL, ArcelorMittal, the Chamber of Employees, the Chamber of Skilled Trades and Crafts).

This article was first published in French on Paperjam.lu and has been translated and edited for Delano.