Central London’s leading large conference and events venue the QEII Centre has announced increases of over 20% in both occupancy and revenue in 2015/16.
In the two years since QEII rebranded and its £12 million capital investment refurbishment programme began, the Centre has recorded its highest ever occupancy levels with a growth over the two years of 20.1% and a total revenue growth of 20.07%.
Now hosting a wider variety of exhibitions, awards ceremonies, fashion shows and banqueting events alongside its core conference business, QEII’s room hire income has grown by 22.74% over two years with revenue generated by room hire increasing on last year’s record rates by 5.25% and operational surplus 16% better than budget.
A Government-owned building, QEII is fully self-funded and has paid £1.7 million in annual dividends to the Exchequer, an increase of 13% on 2014/15.
Mark Taylor, CEO of QEII CentreSpeaking after the announcement of the end of year results, CEO of QEII Centre Mark Taylor said: “I am thrilled that we have once again exceeded our targets and continued the upward momentum of occupancy and revenue growth. The investment in refurbishing the building and rebranding has proved well worthwhile, resulting in increased new business for us as well as exceptional levels of client satisfaction and repeat business, with some contracts in place for the next decade.
“QEII is contributing more than £122 million annually to the UK economy and has cemented its position as one of London’s leading business tourism destinations. We have an exciting 5-year business plan which aims to further increase profits and the dividend receipts. . I would like to thank all of our staff for their hard work and support which has helped us achieve such outstanding results.”
QEII Centre hosts more than 4,500 national and international events every year, with recent high profile events including the Government’s Supporting Syria and the Region 2016 Conference, the Global Law Summit and the International Liver Transplantation Conference. The diversification into a wider variety of events has included leading meetings industry marketing awards the MIMAs and London Fashion Week shows for Topshop and Peter Pilotto.
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