Zug, Switzerland – Infront Hospitality Management, the hospitality arm of the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media, has relocated from Lustenau in Austria to Infront’s headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. The new office opened on 1 October 2010 and has been fully integrated with Infront Sports Services, its supervising unit.
Hospitality for premium events
Infront Hospitality Management has been operating for 15 months and has created a powerful force in the sports hospitality business, with the emphasis on developing and providing exceptionally high quality hospitality services for events throughout the world. Projects delivered successfully throughout this time include hospitality at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, the IIHF World Championship in Germany and the Great Festival Week at the prestigious Iffezheim race course near Baden Baden. Infront Hospitality Management has a strong hospitality and VIP catering heritage in football, motor and winter sports.
The new Managing Director of Infront Hospitality Management will be Markus Katschnig, an experienced hospitality professional from Kofler & Kompanie, who was responsible for leading the company’s catering operations at the FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa this summer. His background is in event hospitality, originally working for the Austrian catering company DO&CO. In 2008 he was involved in the UEFA EURO™ hospitality operation. Markus Katschnig takes over from current Managing Director Markus Knabe, who remains part of the team as a consultant.
Focus on Zug
In Zug, there will be a core team of staff managing the Infront Hospitality Management business. Production and field operations will be supported by Kofler & Kompanie – partner of Infront Hospitality Management; along with the use of third party providers as and when this is the best and most effective operational solution.
Thomas Lessenich, Director Sports Services for Infront, said: “Positioning Infront Hospitality Management in house will enable us to market our services effectively in a competitive marketplace. The integration at headquarters level will further raise efficiencies and synergies for the company’s daily business, as it will be now fully embedded in the heart of Infront’s international operations. We would like to thank Markus Knabe for his valuable contribution to the company’s success so far and look forward to continuing our fruitful relationship with him in his new consultant role.”
Klaus Peter (KP) Kofler, CEO of Kofler & Kompanie, said: “As part of our co-operation with Infront, greater integration and consolidation was always on the cards. This is a move that makes good business sense and will make us more effective as a service to sport.”
Markus Katschnig added: “Infront Hospitality will continue to provide its clients with the full variety of high-end hospitality services and further strengthen the company’s reputation in providing excellent hospitality solutions for all kinds of sports events, including major international competitions.”
About Infront Hospitality Management
As a joint venture of Kofler & Kompanie and Infront Sports & Media, Infront Hospitality Management is an internationally recognised full-service hospitality operation for major sports events. The company has global network capabilities and provides clients with a range of hospitality options, from concept development to full implementation and management.
The client list of Infront Hospitality is an impressive one in the context of sport and includes major FIFA events, the IIHF World Championship – where it has been involved since the 2005 event – FIS Skiing events and the Great Festival Week in Baden-Baden amongst others.
