Carlton Bingo Experiences Surge in Profits
Unlike the flagging Mecca bingo, Carlton bingo has reported a hike in full year profits. This has been attributed to the fact that they have managed to reduce their wage bill. The Inverness based firm who runs 16 bingo venues throughout Scotland and North East England have filed financial statements to the fact that their profits before tax are ₤2.49 million.
This result compares favourably with the previous years and is up by ₤1.33 million. While turnover was lower, being ₤20.15 million as apposed to last years figure of ₤22 million, the bingo groups total wage bill had been reduced to less than ₤6.5 million whereas lat years the bill footed for wages was almost ₤7 million.
It is nice to see that boardroom pay was also decreased, with the Managing director earning just over ₤20 000 less than last year. This must be as a result of the bad financial climate in UK bingo, it is good to see that directors are also taking a knock in terms of fees.
In general the UK bingo industry have been failing to meet prospective budgets due to flagging customer participation. This has been chiefly caused due to the smoking ban. Fortunately none of these things apply to online bingo, you are still allowed to sit at home with your feet up and play a game of bingo while puffing away on a woodbine
Carlton bingo, who can trace its roots back to the 1930’s sold two of its clubs earlier this year for an amount of ₤1.35 million. Recently writing in The Scotsman, Perrins (the Managing Director), asked for the government to take action to secure the future of bingo in the UK. He has asked them to “level the playing fields” to that currently enjoyed by other gaming activities in the UK.
