Hilton betting chain Ladbrokes acquires Jack Brown |
|
|
Published
:
Sat, 16 Jul 2005 21:35
|
LONDON: Hilton group's betting shop chain Ladbrokes is taking over family-owned Welsh bookmaker Jack Brown (Bookmaker) Ltd for 76 million pounds. Ladbrokes intends to rebrand the 127 Jack Brown shops in Wales and 14 in Birmingham and refurbish them over the next six months.
Jack Brown, established in 1927, has a staff strength of 520. Some 70 staff located at the company's headquarters in Pontypridd may lose their jobs as Ladbrokes plans to shut down the facilities there.
Ladbrokes, No 2 behind William Hill, will now have some 2,100 plus outlets in the U.K. and Northern Ireland, bringing it closer to the rival's 2,174 outlets. The company plans to spend 12 million pounds in the next 18 months to induct technology and modernise the outlets enabling punters to bet on international racing and sports events alongside domestic events. It hopes the Jack Brown outlets would bring in 4 million pounds earning before December.
The deal has been talked through for more than a year. Jack Brown's managing director Gary Brown said his company has been running the betting business for more than 78 years and "it was important that we found the right partner for our sale".
Brown and his sister Jacqueline are believed to own the entire equity in the company.
Ladbrokes is Hilton Group's fastest-growing business which helped the hotel chain in earnings when it lost customers after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Ladbrokes, once at the top in the betting sector, had lost the position to William Hill two months ago after the latter bought Stanley Leisure's betting shops in a 504 million pound deal, boosting its number of shops to 2,174.
Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell said the Jack Brown chain has a great future. "We are delighted to have acquired this well established and well-run estate of shops in Wales."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
