SJM on song after Take That’s Progress tour hit

SJM – the Manchester-based concert promotion company founded by the impressario Simon Moran – has reported a surge in sales and profits after a Take That’s reunion Progress tour and Peter Kay’s mammoth show scored a hit with fans.

Sales in 2011 rocketed 92% from £98m to £188.6m, while a loss of just over £5,000 in 2010 became a profit of £7.8m.

Warrington-born Mr Moran, who owns the Warrington Wolves rugby league club and was last year ranked 9th in the Guardian’s Music Power 100, is the controlling shareholder of SJM, which puts on around 2,500 concerts a year.

Take That’s 36-date tour, which started in May 2011, sold more than 1.8 million tickets at venues such the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

This year SJM was behind the sell-out reunion gigs at the Stone Roses’ sell-out gigs at Heaton Park in Manchester.

Rob Ballantine, a director of SJM said the 2011 financial results were “”very satisfactory” and said the directors are expecting a “significant increase in business in the coming year.”

He added:  “The company, its directors and other key employees consider themselves to have good professional relationships with all the separate facets of the UK live entertainment industry.

“The company is therefore confident that it can continue to operate successfully in this competitive market.”