Wimbledon events group predicts "transitional year" after revenues fall by 55%

A London events group has reported that its revenues dropped by more than 50 per cent over the past year.

Arena Events Group, which works on events such as Wimbledon, the Chelsea Flower Show and the London Marathon, saw group revenue of £71.6m last year, a 55 per cent drop from the previous period’s £160.6m.

However, the group said that despite the pandemic’s impact on its results, its adjusted EBITDA of £5.7m was positive, due to a focus on alternative revenue streams during the period, such as the construction of temporary Covid-19 testing facilities.

Greg Lawless, CEO of Arena Events Group, commented: “In a year of complete devastation for the global events industry, the group demonstrated the real value of many years of tenacity in building a diverse global business, with a broad range of product offerings, delivering sufficient non-event revenues to be able to report a positive full year Adjusted EBITDA performance.

“Given the challenges faced by the industry this was, indeed, a very robust performance by the group.

“We are cautiously optimistic about the pace of recovery in the live events industry, which has started later than we would have liked as Covid-19 restrictions have returned in some countries and remained in place in others longer than anticipated.

“Nevertheless, vaccine rollout is going well in all our major markets and therefore, we expect FY22 to be a transitional year for the group.

“I would like to thank all my colleagues for their resilience, flexibility and personal sacrifices in what has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years for the group in its 260-year history.

“Together they have helped position the business well to recover as the live events market returns over the remainder of 2021.”