William Hill £93m store closure bill hits profits
William Hill has reported a £93m writedown in its half-year results relating to its store closure programme, which has led to a group pretax loss of £63.5m
During the first half of 2019, 44 shops closed and at the end of the period the number of shops stood at 2,275.
The company announced last month that it planned to close 700 betting shops in the UK after the introduction of new regulations in April reducing the maximum stake on fixed-odds gaming machines to £2.
William Hill has reported a £93m writedown in its half-year results relating to its store closure programme, which has led to a group pretax loss of £63.5m
During the first half of 2019, 44 shops closed and at the end of the period the number of shops stood at 2,275.
The company announced last month that it planned to close 700 betting shops in the UK after the introduction of new regulations in April reducing the maximum stake on fixed-odds gaming machines to £2.
Subject to the outcome of a consultation on the company’s plans, the majority of shop closures are likely to be in Q4 2019, William Hill said.
The business anticipates that 4,500 jobs are at risk as a result of the store closure plan and it is continuing to engage with circa 1,700 landlords of its more than 2,300 licensed betting offices.
William Hill said in its results for the half year ended 2 July 2019 that the implementation of the regulations had resulted in a 45% drop in its gaming revenues in Q2.
A move into other products had contributed to reducing losses from its retail business, the firm said.
Revenue from its retail operations fell by 12% to £391.5m, compared with the first half of 2018, while adjusted operating profit from the retail division dropped by 46% to £42.7m.
Total group revenue nudged up by 1% to £811.7m.
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