Rank Group appoints William Hill director John O’Reilly as its CEO
Rank Group has named John O’Reilly as its chief executive, less than a month after it warned on profit and said that a weaker consumer outlook had hit the number of gamblers visiting its casinos and bingo halls.
O’Reilly’s appointment comes as Rank is trying to increase its online operations to offset the slowdown at its halls and casinos and attract younger players who use mobile apps, with websites such as meccabingo.com and grosvenorcasinos.com.
Rank had forecast an operating profit of between 76 million pounds and 78 million pounds for the year ending June 30, down from the 84.5 million pounds it reported last year.
The company then said it was cautious about the consumer outlook and did not expect conditions to improve, showing the industry was not immune to a softening in the wider economy in Britain.
The uncertainty around Britain’s planned exit from the European Union, coupled with rising inflation and stagnant real wage growth, has turned Britons more cautious on discretionary spending – a trend echoed by various retailers and documented by industry surveys.
John O’Reilly