Gala Bingo Results
Gala Bingo full-year pre-tax profits are up over 10 per cent, but the Bingo group warned the smoking ban and the removal of lucrative gaming machines from their bingo clubs had impacted on growth.
The privately-held bingo group said it was very cautious about the wider bingo market conditions going into 2008 and would press the UK government for the abolition of VAT on bingo products. Gala Bingo claims there are some 100 bingo clubs whose survival was at stake across the UK but they do not envisage any Gala Bingo clubs closing.
Mecca Bingo announced this week it was scrapping its dividend and cutting back on investing in its business, aimed at keeping within its banking covenants.
Owned by Candover, Cinven and Permira, Gala issued its annual report and accounts which mainly looked healthy. Turnover for the year was up by £83.2m on 2006, while earnings are up £7.2m. Pre-tax profits were up £29.8m.
Earnings for bingo, where the group has 43 per cent share of the market, declined to £136.7m, while the Coral business, now comprising 1,550 outlets, was up 21 per cent on the back of 60 new shop purchases and 28 openings.
GalaCasinos profit rose to £33.2m, although casino duty increases in the Budget cost £2.5m.
GalaCoral said 2006 had been a "challenging" year.
The bingo group said it would have 360 betting offices in Italy by Easter, and that trading from its international division had seen good growth. Gala has purchased a bingo club in Italy and is on track to open a bingo club in China.
Gala Bingo said the online bingo operation produced £20m profit for the year. Gala plans to have a stronger marketing push of the online product in its bingo clubs.
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