Losses widened at the group behind ACC Liverpool and the M&S Bank Arena during its latest financial year despite its turnover starting to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ACC Liverpool Group, which is owned by Liverpool City Council, has posted pre-tax losses of £4.3m for the 12 months to the end of March 2022, compared to losses of £2.4m in the prior year.
The group last reported pre-tax profits in the year ending March 2019.
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Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show the group's turnover increased from £4.8m to £18.4m during the year.
ACC Liverpool Group also includes TicketQuarter while its campus is home to the 216-bed Pullman Liverpool hotel.
The M&S Bank Arena is set to host the grand final of Eurovision on Saturday, May 13.
In October 2022, more than £4m was earmarked for a five-year plan to attract major conferences and sporting events to ACC Liverpool.
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A statement signed off by the board said: "Notwithstanding the stall in business events confidence caused by Omicron, the company carried £5.4m of contracted business meetings into the new financial year and anticipates a buoyant sports and entertainment market.
"During the financial year to date, the company has delivered a record first quarter of entertainment events, successfully hosted two major events, the Labour Party annual conference and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and was delighted to be announced as the host venue for Eurovision 2023; such events showcase the city and its capability to attract major events on the international stage.
"Economically, the aftershocks of the pandemic, soaring inflation, supply-side challenges and the threat of recession means that the operating environment will remain extremely tough through to the end of 2024."
During the year the average number of people employed by the group fell from 222 to 186.
In the documents filed with Companies House, ACC Liverpool Group said the Covid-19 restrictions had "disproportionately impacted" the industry with "forced closures and high proportions of fixed business cost across property and people".
It added that the industry reported "higher than average proportions of businesses with low profits, cash reserves and business confidence" throughout the pandemic.
During the height of the pandemic, event space was repurposed to support the medical response, hosting mass testing and PPE equipment storage and distribution. Space was also used for television and filming.
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The group's venues reopened for full scale large events in late September 2021.
Turnover for the period to December that year rebounded to an average of 85% of pre-pandemic levels, the group added.
However, it said: "As a direct result of the loss of consumer confidence due to the emergence of Omicron and the subsequent introduction of Plan B, we experienced a significant amount of lost and cancelled conference business in December; turnover from events fell to just 45% of pre-pandemic norms for that month.
"Ticket sales and the corresponding attendance for entertainment events in the run up to Christmas slowed considerably as people sought to mitigate the risk of isolation over the festive period.
"Thankfully due to the third booster vaccination programme, combined with increasing immunity rates, the levels of hospitalisations remained significantly lower than previous waves and the government were not forced to put the country into another damaging lockdown in January.
"This stalled the positive recovery in business event booking confidence, the impact of which will be felt into the post year end period.
"Entertainment and sport bounced back strongly in the new financial year with pent up demand for leisure events."
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