What next for Ireland’s Omniplex Cinemas after move into UK market?

With roots in the Irish exhibition industry dating back to 1955, and operating under its current name since 1991, Dublin-headquartered Omniplex Cinemas — part of the more-diversified Omniplex Group — is a family firm hungry to take advantage of opportunities. Founded by Kevin Anderson (who died in 2016) and now led by a trio of descendants, Omniplex had expanded to 21 sites in Ireland and 16 in Northern Ireland by the end of 2023. But Omniplex’s entry to the UK mainland (Great Britain), with the acquisition of seven former Empire cinemas, is its boldest step yet.

Omniplex acquired five sites (Birmingham, Clydebank, High Wycombe, Ipswich and Sutton) from the Empire administrator in December 2023, opening them overnight as Omniplexes after hasty rebranding. In 2024 it picked up two other former Empires — Sunderland and Wigan, which had closed after Empire went into administration in July 2023 — reopening the latter only after extensive refurbishments. The company is now refurbishing all the other sites in sequence. “We may look like we’re calm and relaxed,” says director Paul John Anderson (grandson of founder Kevin), who leads operationally for the UK, “but there’s a lot of work going on.”

Omniplex was well-positioned to take advantage of the Empire opportunity when it arrived. “We own the majority of our locations,” explains Anderson, and in sites that are leased, Omniplex paid for the fit-outs, so is not exposed to high rents. “We’re not in the game of large capital contributions from landlords, and I would classify those as — quote, unquote — artificial rents. And that’s stood to help us in pandemic times where we weren’t as exposed to high leases, and we’ve no debt.

“No-one can predict a pandemic. But it just runs through our business organisation, we’re a family business, we’re conservative in that element. But we’re very ambitious as to where we want to go, and it’s all fuelled by our own private funds.”

In contrast, several UK multiplex chains are still reeling from the impact of Covid closures. “I would see a lot of the problem with those circuits, it’s a balance sheet issue. And they had high leverage and high rents. Covid ripped up the playbook for them, and we were probably on a different playbook.”

Boutique learnings

Omniplex opened its nine-screen boutique The Avenue in Belfast in March 2023 — “a steep learning experience” that is now yielding dividends. Anderson explains the volume of demands on the kitchen exceeded expectations, and the head chef and his team quit after a week. The Avenue closed its kitchen for a month and recruited a new team. “It’s been an absolute gamechanger in teaching us how to integrate high-quality food and beverage into a cinema environment,” he says. “I can see now why Everyman do two, three, four screens. We jumped into the deep end and thought nine would be a great number. As long as you stagger your showtimes, it’s a comfortable trade that goes through.

“It’s different to multiplex. The margins and wages are different. It’s expensive to operate. But if you do it well, the revenue can offset those high costs.”

Despite only operating in Great Britain for 15 months, and with just seven cinemas, the expansion has had a big impact on the Omniplex balance sheet: Anderson estimates that 25% of the chain’s revenue is generated in Great Britain, and adding in Northern Ireland that number rises to “high 50s” for the UK.

Anderson says he is undaunted by the investment arms race that seems to be baked into the exhibition industry. “I remember in 2016 we opened a cinema in Banbridge in Northern Ireland, and we wrote on the side of it, ‘The future of cinema’. At that time, we thought this was the bee’s knees of cinema, and now it looks dated. Every five years, we do a facelift of venues. Every 10 years, we do a substantial renovation. Cinema is incredibly capital-intensive, you have to keep investing. And if you don’t, you get left behind.”

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