Rank To Become Largest UK Casino Operator

Who could have foreseen that when J. Arthur Rank, a wealthy British industrialist, founded film company Rank Organisation in 1937, that 75 years later it would have evolved into Rank Group plc, a company poised to become the biggest single operator of land casinos in the UK?

The story of Rank Organisation is a lengthy but interesting one, which perfectly demonstrates how with the proper vision and guidance, and willingness to adapt with the times, a company that became successful in one field can go on to dominate in a completely different one.

History of Rank Organisation

Under the guidance of J. Arthur Rank, at its peak in the late 1940s Rank Organisation owned five film studios - Islington Studios, Lime Grove Studios, Denham Film Studios, Ealing Studios and the legendary Pinewood Film Studios, 650 cinemas across the UK, as well as various subsidiaries in The Netherlands and Canada.

It also owned General Film Distributors, DeLuxe Laboratories, Rank Screen Advertising and the rights to distribute films by US film studio, Universal Pictures. In 1952 J. Arthur Rank stepped down as MD to become chairman of Rank. His replacement, Sir John Davis, consolidated the firm's film production to Pinewood Studios.

Davis was also the driving force behind a clever partnership with Haloid Corporation to form Rank Xerox, a leading producer of photocopying equipment to this day. He also secured a large shareholding in a television consortium called Southern Television. Under his guidance, Rank Organisation also started record labels called Top Rank and Jaro Records, and even went on to produce stereos and television sets for a time, while acquiring many other businesses along the way.

Rank Acquired Mecca Leisure in 1990

But it was the decision to install bingo game facilities in many of it cinemas in 1961 under the name Top Rank clubs that started the company's long-standing relationship with gambling in the UK. And in 1990, Rank Organisation acquired the UK's largest bingo operator Mecca Leisure plc, merging it with Top Rank clubs to form the nation's biggest bingo company.

Four years earlier in 1986, Rank Organisation became involved in the UK land casino business by acquiring a casino in Great Yarmouth, and after a series of additional acquisitions and new casino developments, was soon well on its way to becoming a major force in the UK gambling market.

That decade, and the next, saw the company also diversify into many other leisure-orientated fields including hotels, theme parks, restaurants, holiday camps, restaurants, timeshare developments, pubs, nightclubs. It even owned Hard Rock Café. And in 1994 Rank Organisation formed Top Rank España, which became the fourth biggest bingo club operator in Spain with 11 clubs nationwide.

Formation of The Rank Group

In 1995 Rank Organisation became Rank Group, a company increasingly focused on becoming solely a gaming and leisure operator. And in this vein, by the new millennium Rank Group was focused on disposing of its non-core businesses, while at the same time acquiring new businesses to enhance its gaming and leisure offerings.

For instance, in 2003 Rank bought leading UK telephone and online bookmaker Blue Square in its quest to gain a larger foothold in the highly lucrative online gambling and betting market. Through Blue Square, Rank launched meccabingo.com, which today is one of the most popular online bingo sites in the UK.

Renamed Rank Interactive in 2008, its internet gaming offerings include meccabingo.com, Bluesq.com and GCasino.com. But while Rank Group has its eye on becoming a major player in the UK online gambling arena, it has also been waiting for the right time to dominate the country's land casino industry, and that time is now.

Rank the Biggest UK Land Casino Operator

Last week Rank Group - which was acquired in July 2011 by All Global Investments Limited (AGIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Guoco Group Limited - confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Gala Casinos' 23 casinos from Gala Coral Group Ltd for a £205 million cash consideration.

This will make Rank Group the largest land casino operator in the UK with a total of 58 operating land casinos, and licences to operate a further 13. Not bad for a company that started out making films in the 1930s.

 Posted by Anton Johan at 12:43 on 16 May 2012