Ladbrokes plc today reports group net revenue up 1.3 per cent for its half-year ended June 30, 2015 and chief executive Jim Mullen said it “reflects the challenge facing Ladbrokes.”
He added: “While we have some encouraging customer trends, we need to reset the business and invest. The results clearly show why we need to change and why we need to do so quickly.”
Mullen reported signs in the half-year figures that “the customer is there to be convinced by the Ladbrokes offer.” He added: “Going forward we expect to see the Ladbrokes brand more prominent across the media, a retail driven multi-channel offer rolling out to more customers, an evolving and improved digital offer and further progress in Australia.”
The proposed merger with the Coral Group, he said, represented an opportunity for the business but that completion is some distance away and meanwhile the focus for the Ladbrokes’ board would be delivering on the organic plan.
Revenues for the UK retail business in bookmaking shops for the half year to 30 June 2015, was £410.5m, an increase on the £405.7m in the same period of last year. The operating profit, however, was down from £57.6m to £56.9m. Digital was up from £105m to £112.2m and the operating profit went from £3m to a loss of £11.5m. European retail was down slightly from £60.3m to £60m, and operating profit down from £6.6m to £6.2m.
The overall revenue for the group was up from £577.8m to £585.4m and group operating profits fell from £56.8m to £38.9 a drop of 31.5 per cent.
During the half-year period there was an average of 8,732 gaming machines on the estate located within 2,169 shops. Forty shops had been closed during the year. It was noted in the accounts that on March 1 the rate of machine games duty increased from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.
