A short history of MeteoGroup

Founding of Meteo Consult

The origins of MeteoGroup date back to 1986 when one of the first European private sector weather businesses, Meteo Consult B.V, was set up in the Netherlands by Harry Otten, a leading Dutch TV weather presenter.

The early days were a challenge for private sector weather businesses in Europe as the National Met Offices dominated all markets and access to essential meteorological data and models was severely restricted.

However, Meteo Consult lobbied hard for fair and equal data access and to open up markets to the private sector. As a result the business in the Netherlands grew in both the media and B2B markets.

Initial European expansion

In the early nineties Meteo Consult started to look outside the Netherlands and to expand into marine services. The company began working with a major international energy and petrochemical company to develop an on-board routing system for the shipping market. SPOS, our proprietary weather routing system, is now a market leader, installed on over 2,000 vessels worldwide.

In 1993 Meteo Consult set up its first business outside the Netherlands when a joint venture for the German market was established in Berlin. In 1998 the joint venture came to an end and our wholly-owned German subsidiary MC-Wetter was established.

Joint venture with PA

Further European expansion quickly followed.  In 1996 Meteo Consult became a majority shareholder in Meteo Services in Belgium (now MeteoGroup Belgium) and in 1997 a joint venture was established with the Press Association in the UK - PA WeatherCentre.

In 1998 Meteo Consult acquired a majority shareholding in MeteoGraphics, a graphics business specialising in visualising weather. Also based in Berlin, MeteoGraphics works closely with the German subsidiary of MeteoGroup.

In May 2005, a majority shareholding in Meteo Consult B.V was acquired by the PA Group, an international group of news, information and communications businesses which include the Press Association, the national news agency of the UK and Ireland.

The Press Association and Meteo Consult had worked together since 1997 in a successful joint venture in the UK, PA WeatherCentre Ltd, now MeteoGroup UK, combining the meteorological skills of Meteo Consult with the packaging and delivery skills of the Press Association.

This acquisition further broadened PA Group's portfolio of diversified information services for international markets and enabled MeteoGroup to accelerate new market growth.

Rebranding as MeteoGroup

In September 2006, the business was re-branded as MeteoGroup, bringing together all our businesses under a single brand. Meteo Consult has retained its original brand name alongside the strapline 'A MeteoGroup Company'.

MeteoGroup España was launched in 2006 with an office in Madrid and, in 2007, MeteoGroup opened new weather operations in Poland (MeteoGroup Polska) and Sweden (MeteoGroup Scandinavia).

A new business was launched in France in April 2009 (MeteoGroup France) bringing the number of European MeteoGroup operations to eight.

Launch of US office

2010 marked a key point in MeteoGroup’s growth strategy with expansion into the United States and the launch of MeteoGroup USA.

In May 2011, MeteoGroup acquired Nowcasting International Limited, an Ireland-based company specialising in technology for offshore weather forecasting.  The company now forms part of MeteoGroup Offshore, a dedicated division supplying meteorological and oceanographic products and services to the offshore industry.

At the end of 2011, operations in Europe were further strengthened with the set-up of an office in Italy, MeteoGroup Italia.

Expansion into Southeast Asia

In July 2012, MeteoGroup Singapore was launched, initially focusing on providing weather products and services to the Southeast Asian shipping and offshore markets.

MeteoGroup currently has operations in ten European countries, the United States and Singapore as well as sales representatives in the Middle East and Far East.

We look forward to the next chapter in our history...