Grosvenor Casinos reported £72 million annual loss

Rank Group, the owner of Grosvenor Casinos, came up with really bad news on Thursday.  They reported a staggering £72 million annual loss. Their sites spent nearly 60% of the year while closed under lockdown.

Rank Group from London that is also behind Enracha and Mecca brands said that there was a £72 million post-tax loss at the end of June, compared with £9.4 million a year earlier. 

They also have witnessed net gaming revenues falling by 48% to £329.6 million.

Approximately 80% of the Rank Group revenue is derived from its sites. There was also a challenging period when it came to the UK online gambling business since Gambling Commission issued affordability guidance in order to protect online players.

Rank’s chief executive JJohn O’Reilly claimed that Rank Group was losing approximately £15 million per month while they were closed due to the pandemic. London which drives the most revenue of the casino business is still struggling.  Revenues are still down about 40% compared to the pre-pandemic period. 

Grosvenor owns 52 UK sites, the nine London casinos usually account for approximately 42% of the total brand’s revenues.

But O’Reilly continued on a more optimistic note, saying that outside of London and Scotland revenues are almost back to pre-pandemic levels. The anticipated return of London office workers in September is most likely going to boost sales.

O’Reilly said: “It’s been a rotten year… But we’ve navigated our way through the pandemic well. Since opening in May we’re really pleased with the progress we’re making in all three businesses. We’ve got a strong balance sheet now as we re-emerge and we’ve been using the downtime to ensure that we do emerge from this strongly. Recovery is coming.”

The CEO claims that the company is making “a good bit of investment where we can across the estate including new products and services for customers”.