Rank targets corporate turnaround following year of all-round declines

The governance of London-listed The Rank Group Plc is turning its attention towards a recovery plan, following a “challenging year for the group,” primarily impacted by the poor performance of its Grosvenor Casino venues, which saw full-year pre-tax profits slip 41.4 per cent to £46.7m (2017: £79.7m).

Grosvenor properties recorded a  6.1 per cent revenue decline for the year ending June 30 to £373m (£397.2m), attributed to further enhanced customer due-diligence checks, adviced by the UK Gambling Commission, and extreme UK weather conditions recorded during February-March 2018. 

Further hindrance came in the form of a lower gaming margin from high-value players and unusually warm Q3 weather, also resulting in a 6.7 per cent operating profit drop to £48.6m (£52.1m).

Rank also saw its Mecca Bingo entity report a 2.6 per cent revenue decrease, coming in at £208.1m (£213.6m), while operating profits at its digital business, such as Grosvenorcasinos.com and meccabingo.com, also tumbled 7.9 per cent to £20.9m (£22.7m).  

Full-year group operating profit before exceptional items slipped 7.8 per cent to £77m (£83.5), while full-year total revenues dipped 2.3 per cent, coming in at £691m from the previous years £707.2m.

Presenting his first financial update as Rank Group Chief Executive, John O’Reilly details to investors that Rank executives will implement corporate recovery plan, focusing on maximising cost efficiencies and accelerating growth within its UK properties.

“I joined Rank because of its underlying potential. With the backdrop of a disappointing performance in 2017/18, we are now moving quickly to identify the key priorities, which will begin to realise the significant underlying potential that I have now seen first-hand since joining the group in early May.

“We are taking steps to increase our focus on the customer, to accelerate growth in the digital business, to drive cost efficiencies across the business and to strengthen our organisational capabilities. This will be delivered within a transformational programme framework, which will ensure that we deliver a growing Rank Group that is fit for the future.”