Following the closure of all their cinemas due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Cineworld Group has begun laying off staff.
The group declined to reveal the number of staff fired. A company spokesperson told The Telegraph newspaper, “We are not firing all staff.”
In a statement shared with Variety, Cineworld said: “Like other businesses in the retail and leisure industry we are facing an incredibly challenging time as a consequence of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Following government guidance, we have taken the decision to close all our cinemas across the U.K. and Ireland to protect the health and wellbeing of our employees and customers. We value our employees and want to do everything we viably can to support them in these difficult and uncertain times. Our aim has been to preserve jobs and continue to pay as many staff as possible while they are not working.”
Cineworld is the second largest cinema chain in the world, after China’s Wanda Cinemas group.
Cineworld declared its preliminary annual financial results for 2019 on March 12. At that time, group CEO Mooky Greidinger had stated: “Should conditions relating to COVID-19 continue or worsen, we have measures at our disposal to reduce the impact on our business including, but not limited to, capex postponement, cost reduction, in order to maintain cash liquidity, however we have highlighted the potential impact this could have on the group within our going concern statement.”
Group revenue was $4,370 million, softer than 2018’s 4,657 million. Admissions were 275 million, down from 2018’s 308.4 million.
Cineworld’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Cineplex, Canada’s leading cinema chain, has shareholder approval, but is yet to be completed.
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