The Rank Group

The Rank Group
The Rank Group plc
Type Public (LSE: RNK)
Industry Gaming
Founded 1995
Headquarters Maidenhead, England, UK
Key people Peter Johnson, (Chairman)
Ian Burke, (CEO)
Revenue £567.8 million (2010)[1]
Operating income £62.0 million (2010)[1]
Net income £53.2 million (2010)[1]
Website www.rank.com

The Rank Group plc (LSE: RNK) is a European gaming and leisure business. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Contents

History

The company was formed to acquire the business interests of the Rank Organisation which itself was formed out of the business interests of its founder, J. Arthur Rank.[2]

Until the start of the 21st century, the group still had a tremendous amount of leisure holdings; however, as the decade progressed they sold their interests in Pinewood Studios[3] and the Odeon cinema chain.[4] It also divested itself of its engineering companies such as its share in Rank Xerox, selling Rank Leisure Machine Services to Gametec plus all its Butlins, Warner and Haven Holidays holiday and recreation facilities, which were all sold to Bourne Leisure.[5] They then sold off their nightclub division Rank Entertainment as well as their share of interest in Universal Studios Florida and disposed of their vast Rank film library to Carlton Communications with whom they'd recently also sold their Rank Advertising Film Division.

In December 2005, as Rank sold Deluxe Film (formerly Rank Film Laboritories) for £400m, it effectively ended their sixty year association with the film and cinema business.[6] This meant Rank Leisure had become focussed on their gaming operations with their remaining businesses interests concentrating on Grosvenor and G Casinos, Top Rank and Mecca Clubs, and online gaming through Rank Interactive after the company acquired the Blue Square gaming business in 2003.[7]

Finally leaving all non-gaming leisure behind, in December 2006, Rank sold the Hard Rock business, excluding the London casino venue which was rebranded to a G casino, to the Seminole Tribe of Florida for US$965 million.

Operations

Mecca

Mecca is a UK-based social and bingo club leisure company, with sites located across the UK in most major towns and cities.[8] The company also operates Meccabingo.com and Meccagames.com as an extension of the Mecca Bingo brand.

Blue Square

Blue Square logo

Blue Square is Rank's interactive gaming business launched on 5 May 1999. Originally a traditional bookmaking business, Blue Square's services now include an online casino, slots and online poker.

In 2001 and 2002 Blue Square opened a betting market on races involving snails, hamsters and alligators.[9]

Since the start of the 2007–08 football season, Blue Square has sponsored the Football Conference, the highest level of non-league football in England.[10]

Grosvenor Casinos

Grosvenor Casinos (formerly Soames Casino[11]) is a UK-based chain of over thirty casinos located in major towns and cities across the UK with two sister casinos located in Belgium.[12]

enRacha

enRacha is Rank’s Interactive Spanish gaming site launched on 2011. enRacha offers a wide range of Spanish card games, online slots, skill games and casino and poker games.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Annual Report 2010
  2. ^ Rank Group: Chronology
  3. ^ Rank sells UK's flagship Pinewood studios
  4. ^ Rank sells Odeon Cinema Chain to Cinven for £280m
  5. ^ Rank to sell Butlin resorts
  6. ^ Final gong as Rank plans to sell film-making arm
  7. ^ UK Rank buys Blue Square
  8. ^ Meccabingo: Profile
  9. ^ "Gators aid charity funds". BBC Sport. 6 May 2002. Accessed 7 July 2011.
  10. ^ "Conference announces new sponsors". BBC Sport. 11 April 2011. Accessed 7 July 2011.
  11. ^ http://ukcasinochips.com/casinolist.html
  12. ^ Grosvenor Casinos: Profile
  13. ^ Spanish Network Launches

External links


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