The new CEO at Rank, the UK-based group that contains 96 Mecca Bingo clubs, the 56-unit Grosvenor Casinos and Enracha, the Spanish bingo operating business, has laid out plans for rejuvenating the business.
Source: Rank Group
Rank, which saw revenue up 14 per cent to £678m (€844m) but pre-tax profits down to £14.4m (€17.9m) from £42.7m (€53.2m) published two weeks ago, is to regenerate itself, says Henry Birch, who has just taken over the hot seat.
Pubs and betting shops are his main target; Birch wants to win customers from each to a new offering in his bingo clubs. He wants a more rounded experience for players, he said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph last weekend. “The pub sector can be a little bit one directional because you are going in and have a meal and what do you do then? You sit and drink but with us it’s entertainment as well.” Birch is to build three major new clubs, with a fresh branding.
He also wants to win customers from bookmaker’s shops.
“If you look at what we have got versus the bookmakers, the potential for multi-channel (encouraging customers to spend in more ways than one) from a Rank point of view is significantly more. When you go into a bookmaker it is anonymous, it is a fairly underwhelming experience in terms of the overall atmosphere and what you get. There is limited engagement with staff, people are typically not there for that long, there is no tracking of behaviour, there is no loyalty – you can’t really class it as entertainment.”
Birch cites the Grosvenor loyalty scheme as a winner in this direction and plans to run out something similar with Mecca bingo clubs. He is going to overhaul the online gaming website to compete with bookmakers and plans a return to sports betting.
