Peter Kay brings a smile to SMG Europe
PETER Kay’s 20-night residency at the Manchester Evening News Arena was a highlight in a slow year for the venue’s operator SMG Europe.
According to the company’s latest filed accounts the Bolton comedian’s shows were a “sensational achievement the went beyond SMG’s conventional operating agreement with a performer.”
Kay’s stint in April and May was a boost for SMG which described 2010 as “particularly weak” in the UK with fewer bookings and no performances at all at the MEN – its flagship venue – in the third quarter.
In the group’s latest filed accounts the directors comment that 2010 was the year when the entertainment industry, “took the impact of the well publicised economic recession a year later than most other sectors.”
Nonetheless, pre-tax profits rose 3% to £5.7m on sales of £42.2m, up 1%, in the year to December 31.
The group was buoyed by a “very good year” at its German venue and a better than expected year in Belfast and Poland. These gains were responsible for the improved profits.
During the year the group’s venues staged 290 concerts, up by eight on the previous year, but the number of punters fell 10% to 1.6 million. Accordingly, the average income per concert fell 17% to £49,600. A total of 601 other events were held by the venues, down 4%.
In June last year the company agreed a new 25-year lease with Development Securities, the property development and investment company which acquired the 21,000-seater concert and sports venue for £62.2m in the same month. It bought the site from Capital & Regional and its joint venture partner GE.
