Gala Coral’s bingo operations performed strongly in the first quarter of the 2015 financial year.
EBITDA at the company’s Gala Retail arm increased 66 per cent to £12.1m in the 16 weeks to January 17, compared with the previous year. The reduction in UK bingo duty was a significant contributor to this year-on-year growth, it said.
Gala said it has continued to invest in its customer experience through “everyday low pricing” and fixed prize boards, as well as increasing the number of customers using electronic tablets to play bingo.
These measures helped increase “mainstage” spend-per-head 13 per cent ahead of last year. There has been a decline in the frequency of visits of low-value paper players, however.
The company said its growth in machines has also been “encouraging,” with spend-per-head up nine per cent. This, it explained, was primarily due to the introduction of improved content on B3 machines.
Overall, the Gala Coral group’s gross profit of £267.4m was five per cent ahead of last year and its EBITDA was up 11 per cent at £67.3m.
