The top brass at the legacy Welsh operator Castle Bingo have lodged accounts for 2024 which show record profits across much of its portfolio, in spite of a wider sector downturn.
Welsh regional bingo powerhouse Castle Leisure has posted its latest financials, showing that the company continues a pattern of modest growth despite wider industry headwinds.
New accounts released show that across its 11 locations the bingo operator generated turnover in excess of £37m in 224, a small but significant gain on the £35.2m taken the prior year.
This amounted to pre-tax profit of £4.8m, up £500,000 on 2023.
Castle Leisure has been in operation from the same Cardiff head office since 1856, and is dominant throughout the South Wales region, but has expanded to three English locations in the past decade.
In an accompanying statement to its latest accounts, company directors said its buoyant performance had defied inflationary headwinds, particularly in relation to the cost of payroll.
Indeed, they said that industry-wide, trading conditions “remained challenging”. They noted: “The directors anticipate further consolidation within the bingo market in the near term.”
However, they added that this hadn’t stopped the company from laying the groundwork for two prospective new locations, although they were tight-lipped as to when these openings might take place, stating: “The company has been actively assessing expansion opportunities and has acquired two freehold properties during the second half of 2024.”
Digging deeper into the data set, all of Castle’s clubs grew their profitability against the 2023 comparative, with eight of them actually setting all-time record highs in profit contribution.
The directors celebrated this result as a “outperformance of the UK bingo market,” and said it was a direct result of a strategy which prioritises “providing an enjoyable value bingo based leisure experience to a diverse customer base.”
Building more Castle forts
Castle Bingo said… “The company has been actively assessing expansion opportunities and has acquired two freehold properties during the second half of 2024…
