Gaming and betting group Gala Coral has blamed the smoking ban in England, Scotland and Wales for lower EBITDA in the year ended September 27, 2008.
The company’s turnover fell by three per cent to £1,268m during this period, while group EBITDA decreased by 10 per cent to £362m – trends that it has attributed to the smoking ban adversely affecting its bingo clubs and casinos.
However, Gala Casinos grew admissions and recruited 400,000 new members and rolled out its loyalty card, Fortune, across all casinos. Meanwhile, Coral grew EBITDA by nine per cent and the group repaid £97m of senior debt over the course of the year.
“Last year was challenging for Gala Coral due to well tracked regulatory and economic impacts,” commented Dominic Harrison, Gala Coral’s chief executive.
“I believe though that the group responded well to those challenges and I am particularly pleased with the growth delivered by Coral – our main business,” he said.
“As the economic outlook remains uncertain we have responded with intelligent cost management and an internal restructuring to make sure we are as efficient as possible to cope with these challenges.”
