The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Online gambling helps Rank Group cash in
The Rank Group has cashed in with a 19% rise in pre-tax profit to £74.1 million in the year to June.
The operator of Mecca Clubs and Grosvenor G Casinos said its performance was boosted by strong sales in venues and online businesses.
Revenue grew 4% to £738.3m including a 2% growth in venues revenue and 21% growth in digital. Like-for-like sales rose 5%. Rank Group will pay a dividend of 5.60p for the full year, a rise of 24%.
Chief executive Henry Birch said the improvement in performance was significant with a strong set of results and profit growth across all brands.
Good progress had also been made on strategic objectives and there was a clear strategy for delivering sustainable profitable growth.
He continued: “We are particularly pleased that the strong digital growth we reported at our interims continues and we remain on track to implement a new digital platform in early 2016.
“Our market-leading Grosvenor Casinos business continues to deliver consistent growth with like-for-like revenue up 8% and operating profit up 17%.
“Mecca has had a significantly improved year with like- for- like revenues up 2% and operating profit up 16%.”
The Mecca performance was driven by good digital growth, stable like-forlike revenues in venues and lower operating costs benefiting from a reduction in bingo duty.
After some difficult years Enracha, the Spanish bingo business, reported euro profits up 240%.
He continued: “We firmly believe that alongside growth in digital gambling, there will continue to be sustained demand for venue-based gambling in bingo clubs and casinos which offer an experience that cannot be digitised.”
Consumer trends would favour companies that can offer services across digital and retail channels, he said.