Emerging from Lockdown Part 2- Cinemas, Gyms & Bowling
What are the trends as Leisure emerges from the lockdown?
Join us for our morning webinar looking at early indications of activity as leisure and hospitality emerge into their new ‘business as normal’.
Date: 19th August 2020
Time: 9.15am – access via Zoom invitation
In our second webinar on this topic, the Leisure Property Forum invites its membership to explore with us the early results and trends experienced by those with leisure businesses in the cinema, bowling and gym sectors that have opened up in July and August. While it will still be early days, our panellists will give their insight into how their businesses are shaping up, what changes they are experiencing and how they see the industry evolving now that they are engaging with customers again.
We will have the most up-to-date research with a sector round-up on the early indications of how customers are reacting to the re-opening of the industry from Karl Chessel, CGA’s Business Unit Director. After his presentation, there will be a chance to ask our panel of operators to share their early learnings.
We are delighted to welcome Mark Stretton from Fleet Street Communications as our chair for this session,who will be directing your questions to:
Richard Darwin – CEO of The Gym Group
Richard possesses extensive experience working for leisure and FMCG companies in the UK and internationally, including The Rank Group and Diageo. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. He has previously held the positions of Chief Financial Officer of Essenden plc from 2009 to 2015 and Chief Financial Officer of Paramount Restaurants from 2003 to 2008. Richard served as The Gym Group’s Chief Financial Officer from 2015 to 2018.
Brian Gilligan – Director of Melcorpo & ARC Cinemas
A Director of Melcorpo, Brian has 25 years’ experience in the film business – in DVD distribution, retail, and as a cinema operator since 2014. Melcorpo operates “The Arc Cinema” brand along with some complimentary leisure and F&B businesses, and is also a commercial property investment company. The Arc Cinema was conceived to reposition Melcorpo’s town centre retail property assets by harnessing the regenerative power of cinema, and it is now actively growing its footprint of high quality community focussed cinemas in strong market town locations across the UK.
Laurence Keen – Chief Financial Officer at Hollywood Bowl Group PLC
CFO of Hollywood Bowl Group, the largest Ten-pin Bowling Operator in the UK, Laurence has over 15 years’ experience in retail, hospitality and leisure. Having spent his earlier career in finance, he has held senior operational roles at Pizza Hut UK, Debenhams and also Paddy Power where he was Development Director. He joined Hollywood Bowl in 2014 and was part of the management team to undertake a buy out with the backing of Epiris Private Equity. During 2018 Hollywood Bowl created a new indoor mini-golf concept, Puttstars, and its first centre opened in March 2020, with two more due to open pre-September 2020. The group has a strong pipeline of new Hollywood Bowl centres as well as many interested parties for Puttstars.
Karl Chessel from CGA will be presenting the early research and numbers from the first weeks of re-opening.
Karl has supported the leisure sector throughout his career, leading teams at businesses including Experian and CallCredit. He has worked closely with companies in the leisure sector to understand their goals and provide tailored consumer insight and location planning solutions.
The webinar will be held on Zoom which is free to users. You will be able to join our seminar here – zoom.us/join – once you have registered and received the event details.
We would encourage you to participate both by submitting your questions beforehand, and by joining the event at 9.15am on the 19th August 2020.
Please submit your questions in advance by 11th August 2020 via email – info@leisurepropertyforum.co.uk
The LPF is committed to its mission during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this virtual event is intended to meet our objectives to both inform and facilitate the sharing of vital information on your behalf.