Goals Soccer Centres has attracted leisure industry big-hitter Mark Jones to become its new leader as it reorientates towards the US and recovers from last year’s cancelling of the dividend.
Mr Jones, 55, has quit as managing director of Grosvenor Casinos, which turned over £220million in its last half-year and made profits of £33m, achieving rises of seven per cent in both, to become chief executive at East Kilbride-based Goals.
He was moved across to Grosvenor, the UK’s biggest casinos business, in October 2014 by parent company Rank after five years as managing director of Mecca Bingo during challenging times for the industry.
He was chairman and chief executive of Premium Bars and Restaurants, the sector’s leading operator in the north-east of England, when Rank hired him in 2009, and before that was chief executive of Yates Group, chief executive of Pizza Hut UK, and managing director of Whitbread’s high street brands.
Goals’ new executive chairman Nick Basing said: “I am delighted Mark is joining to lead the company through its next phase of development. Mark has an exceptional and experienced track record of managing leisure brands and growing businesses. His appointment further strengthens the calibre of the board, following the other appointments announced recently.”
This month has seen the arrival on the board of Scott Lloyd and Christopher Mills. Mr Lloyd, 41, founded the Next Generation fitness clubs chain in 1997 and went on to merge it with David Lloyd Leisure after leading the management buyout of that business from Whitbread. Mr Mills, 63, co-founded J O Hambro Capital Management in 1993, setting up a successor Hambro Capital Management, in 2011.
Mr Jones said he too was delighted. “Whilst the company has experienced its recent issues, it remains an excellent business with significant potential both here in the UK and in the US. I look forward to working with the Goals team and driving the business forward.”
The five-a-side operator has 46 sites in the UK, including two in Glasgow and one in Aberdeen, but in March reported that sales slid by almost five per cent last year. The company cited “significant” grant-aided school and local authority pitches as providing increased competition, as it posted a £6.2m loss following the previous year’s £6.8m profit, and withheld the dividend. Underperforming centres prompted an impairment charge of £8.1m, with the company already committed to growing only in the US where it has one centre in Los Angeles. Former managing director Keith Rogers now heads up the US and international business with five new sites under development.
Mr Basing promised a strategic review to improve performance and returns, and a reinvestment programme to rejuvenate the business.
This month he reported that sales in the first 18 weeks of 2016 were only "marginally negative", and said the appointment of another “highly capable” non-executive as senior independent director was imminent.
Nigel Parson, analyst at the house brokers Canaccord Genuity, commented on the appointment: “I think they have done very well. They have got a proper decent experienced CEO with a ton of operational experience in the leisure sector.”
On Mr Jones’ background in driving revenues across customer spending, he said: “Improving the whole customer experience is clearly part of the brief. Goals has also done a lot of work on the digital side and in a consumer-facing industry CEOs increasingly have to have that capability, which he does.”
Rank reported a 50per cent rise in its online customer base in its last half-year, driven by the advance of the casino business.
Mr Parson said the AIM-listed company now had a strong board and chief executive, freeing up Mr Rogers to “focus on what he is really good at” in driving international growth.
“You can see they are assembling a really good team.”
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