The British gaming group Rank has announced plans to build 10 new casinos at a cost of £500m which will expand their business by a third. The company who owns Mecca Bingo and the Grosvenor Casinos chain already owns 35 casinos and 103 bingo halls according to the London Stock Exchange.
Five of the proposed casinos will be built in Northern and Central England in the next two years which will cost around £23m. The remaining five casinos will be purchased at a later date.
Rank has also reported casino revenues up 9.3pc to £117m in the first half of 2010. Visits by customers has gone up 15.6pc though the average spend per visit has dropped by 5.5pc.
Rank’s CEO, Ian Burke has said the group will bid for a new casino based in Newham which was the first borough to win a casino license as part of the Government’s 2005 Gambling Act. There may be some competition for Rank as there is talk of Aspers, the group that owns Aspinalls, also wishing to open a casino in Stratford which is also located in the borough of Newham.
Rank currently offers 20 slot machines at their Victoria casino as ruled by previous law but they will request that the new rule of 150 slot machines per new casino is extended to cover their existing casinos too.
A decade long drop in visits to Rank bingo halls has done a U turn and customer visits are on the rise. It is thought that the smoking ban had a lot to do with this and investment and modernisation of the traditional clubs has helped customer visits grow 0.4pc to 7.5m
Rank also said that club revenues were up at the newly refurbished clubs and a newer, younger clientele were being welcomed to these clubs which were refitted with them in mind. Pre tax profit is said to be £67.4m compared to £27m after a net £38.2 gain largely due to a VAT rebate.
On Friday Rank shares closed at 117 pence which is a 40pc rise in stock since the beginning of the 2010.
Ian Burke commented: “I am encouraged by the group’s performance during the first half of 2010. All of our businesses have achieved growth in revenue as a result of increased numbers of customers and customer visits.
“We have engaged with our customers to identify the changes that we needed to make to our products and services; we have strengthened our senior management team in order to deliver performance change; and we have stepped up our capital investment to support the growth plans of the businesses.
“In spite of a challenging environment for consumer-facing businesses, the group has made sustained progress and enjoys a strong balance sheet.”