Rank Group revenue down 4.9 pct

In the first 16 weeks of the fiscal year, Rank Group posted a 4.9% revenue decline due to a drop in sales and traffic at its casinos and bingo venues.

UK.- After 16 weeks into a new fiscal year, Rank Group has reported a 4.9% year-on-year decline in comparable group revenue as it was impacted by a decrease in its casinos and bingo halls’ sales and traffic. The company had already said it was experiencing a challenging period after the first 6 weeks back in August, but the trend continues two months later.

According to the recent report, Grosvenor casinos like-for-like sales were down 7.2% as high rollers spent less money over the last 16 weeks, while sales at Mecca bingo dropped 5% due to a visitor decline at its halls.

However, the group’s digital revenue did rise over the beginning of the fiscal year and improved 1.7%, or 13.5% when including its Spanish YoBingo digital venture. Nonetheless, Grosvenor Casinos’ digital sales were still down 5.2% as due diligence on customers implemented in September 2017 tightened up.

Rank Group explained that it has already implemented part of its transformation programme, through which it has already identified some early cost savings which are set to turn the tables on the early fiscal year Grosvenor Casinos venues’ revenue decline.