Ken Turner, the chief executive of gaming machine supplier Sceptre Leisure, has declared he wants to double the size of the business and that the group plans to increase its charity machine lottery output.
The group, which was formed 1988 and is the country’s third largest supplier, has revealed this morning that its ebitda doubled in the past 12 months to £13m.
Revenue also increased by 83% to £39.2m – in the company’s first year trading on the Alternative Investments Market.
Turner said: “We believe we can only go on from here and intend to double the size of the business – with organic growth and by acquisitions. And thanks to being on AIM and a £5.5m share placing that gives us the flexibility to expand.”
The company has completed a 100-strong trial of instant-win lottery machines, called LotteryKing, in the Joseph Holt estate in the north-west.
The machines support a single nominated charity with licensees earning 15p in each pound spent and the company now has plans to rollout a further 200 machines across the country.
Turner also warned that pub tenants are missing out on up to £1,000 of revenue from the new higher stakes and prizes AWP machines because they are not keeping cash hoppers filled with one pound coins.
Turner said that managed pubs were enjoying up to a 20% boost to income from the new machines thanks to strict replenishment of cash hoppers.
But tenanted pubs are enjoying a much smaller increase of two to three per cent because they are failing to keep cash hoppers full - around £350 in pound coins is required for the new machines.
The total number of machines operated by Sceptre increased by 19% to 18,000 with average weekly rental up by 23% in the period.
