9:14am Wednesday 8th July 2009
By Chris Holland
Keighley-born Oscar winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy may not know it, but he’s playing a part in keeping one of the city’s leisure complexes healthy in the economic downturn.
The success of the film Slumdog Millionaire for which Simon wrote the screenplay (he also wrote The Full Monty), is one of the features that has been pulling in customers at the Leisure Exchange in Vicar Lane.
According to a property specialist from the agency that operates the Leisure Exchange on behalf of the owners, consumer spending on leisure has been among the least volatile sectors during the recession.
Andrew Milton, associate director in retail asset management at DTZ in Leeds, said: “We have seen the leisure sector holding up quite well in the current conditions. We have seen this across leisure schemes managed by DTZ in the north. Leisure parks such as the Leisure Exchange in Bradford have seen trading remaining good with fairly high levels of confidence.”
Tenants such as cinema operator Cineworld saw box office sales rise by 6.4 per cent, with spending on food and drink up by 2.4 per cent. The company saw pre-tax profits increase to £27.6m in 2008, compared with £12.4m in 2007 as the appetite for the cinema remained high.
Cinema trade continued to drive footfall at leisure parks. The first quarter of 2009 saw excellent films being released such as multi-Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, which boosted audience numbers.
All cinemas generally traded above budget across all DTZ-managed leisure parks, which in turn meant that the majority of restaurants and bowling operators also met their targets or traded above target during the first quarter 2009. Andrew says: “There is no reason to suspect from trading figures compiled by DTZ during the first quarter of 2009 that the leisure market will not follow the same pattern as other economic downturns and continue to hold up well compared to other sectors in the economy.
“While there will undoubtedly be an effect on leisure spending as families tighten their belts, this will be significantly less than spending on other items such as new car sales, which have recently posted a 30 per cent drop in like-for-like sales.”
Andrew says cinema operators were expecting business to have remained busy in the second quarter of 2009, New releases such as Transformers 2, Star Trek, Angels And Demons, Night At The Museum 2 and Terminator Salvation will have helped to improve trading for leisure park operators and ensure that consumer spending continued.
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