NEC hails 'significant' financial growth as revenue and earnings surge

Revenue and earnings for the live events venue group soared as it also hosted a string of new exhibitions in addition to regulars Crufts and Insomnia, the UK's biggest gaming festival.

NEC boss Paul Thandi said: "This has been an exceptional year."

The group, running five live events venues including the International Convention Centre (ICC), Genting Arena, Arena Birmingham and the Vox Conference Centre, has filed its second set of financial results since its takeover by LDC, the private equity investment arm of Lloyds Bank, in May 2015.

NEC – which also owns caterer Amadeus and national ticketing agency The Ticket Factory – reported revenue of £157.7 million for the financial year to March 31, up £23.9m, or 17.9 per cent, on the previous year. Reported pre-tax earnings for the trading businesses soared 58 per cent to £50.4m, a rise of £18.6m.

The company said this reflected initial benefits from a transformation agenda to improve the use of the NEC's venues. As well as new exhibitions it included the first full year's rent from Resorts World Birmingham, operated by Genting.

New exhibitions hosted for the first time included industrial event Automechanika, Destination Star Trek and the UK Games Expo. These were in addition to regulars such as the Spring Fair, Crufts and the BBC Good Food Show and more recently introduced events such as Insomnia.

The group’s two arenas welcomed over 1.4 million visitors during the year. As well as international music acts the arena's also saw the return of the Horse of the Year Show, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Strictly Come Dancing and Cirque du Soleil.

The group has also developed new formats such as the B1 smaller venue at Arena Birmingham, designed to attract business events.

At the same time it has continued to spend on the premises, with investment of £17.2m on projects including major improvements to the hospitality facilities at the Genting Arena and signficant refurbishments of catering facilities in the halls at the NEC.

Chief executive Paul Thandi said further investment would focus on the use of digital technology.

He added: “We are not content to stand still. We will continue to deliver against our proven strategy, whilst broadening our business through a focused leisure strategy to give our visitors more compelling reasons to visit. This includes two visitor attractions to be delivered by Merlin Entertainments at our NEC and city centre sites in the next 12 months and new long-stay content such as Dinosaurs in the Wild, which we hosted at NEC this summer.

“We are proud to be a central part of the West Midlands’ visitor economy, and look forward to our growth in scope and activity enhancing further the regional economy and its national and international profile.

“We are at an early stage of our strategic development. The initiatives we have recently implemented and those planned, allied with the profile of contracted forward bookings across the group, provide us with confidence that our businesses will continue to grow strongly.”

Around seven million people a year visit more than 750 events, concerts and exhibitions at the NEC's sites, where it employs 1,700 full time staff and 450 casual workers.