Disney helps propel Excel London to year of record-breaking success
Excel London, the UK’s largest exhibition centre, has had a record-breaking year as a surge in visitors boosts its revenue to its highest level ever.
The East London venue, which last year hosted ‘Disney100: The Exhibition’ and the UK’s largest gaming exhibition EGX 2023, welcomed more than three million visitors through its doors in 2023 across 400 events.
The 100-acre event space, owned by Abu Dhabi’s ADNEC Group, saw its revenue jump by 30 per cent to £111m in 2023, up from £85.5m in the year before, according to newly-filed results with Companies House.
This drove its pre-tax profit to £45m – an increase of more than 20 per cent on the previous period and the highest figure the venue has ever recorded.
The company behind the centre said that “long-stay events” like Disney100 had played a significant role in its recent success and that it had plans for at least two more similar events in 2024.
Venue overcomes ‘burden of inflation’
Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, ADNEC Group’s CEO, said in a report published to Companies House: “In last year’s annual report I emphasised the strength of our recovery following the pandemic as good numbers of exhibitors and visitors returned to Excel London.
“This year I am pleased to report a record-breaking year in terms of both the number of events hosted and utilisation of our venue which resulted in the company reporting its highest ever revenues and EBITDA.
“With growth comes the need to invest to ensure Excel London’s future is sustainable and built on firm foundations.
“We are proud to invest in our operational infrastructure this year including a net 26 per cent increase in headcount and committed significant investment to operational systems and technology improvements, accelerating the development and usage of digital products and automation.
“We made these in spite of the burden of near 10 per cent cost inflation generally across our entire cost base but most notably in areas such as utilities and salaries.
“Despite the challenges posed by inflation I am delighted to report that our EBITDA more than kept pace with revenue growth and rose by £19m (47 per cent) to £59m – an outstanding performance given then challenging environment.”
Excel London’s ongoing High Court battle
News of its strong performance comes after lawyers for Excel returned to court last week as Allianz and other insurance giants looked to overturn a High Court ruling in favour of the venue.
Excel London, like many businesses, took its insurers to court over business interruption losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Back in October 2022, it sued six insurance companies: Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) Insurance, Allianz Insurance, CNA Insurance, Aviva Insurance, Zurich Insurance and Chubb European Group.
Excel’s claim, which is seeking roughly £16m, was heard with five similar claims brought by Kaizen Cuisine, Mayfair Banqueting, Hair Lab and Why Not Bar and Lounge against a range of insurance giants.
The issue of whether firms could make a business interruption claim with their insurers as a result of losses during the Covid-19 pandemic was broadly settled by the Supreme Court back in 2021.
It ruled it that ‘disease’ and ‘prevention of access’ clauses in companies’ insurance policies provide cover in the circumstances of Covid-19.
However, there were several gaps that weren’t covered in the judgment because they weren’t included in the initial appeal, leaving the door open to more business interruption court cases between insurers and policy holders.