Scottish and Newcastle machine profits rise 8% after deal with Machine Insite

Pub group Scottish and Newcastle Pub Company (S&NPC) has seen profits from its gaming machines rise 8% across its 1,300-strong estate, bucking a trend which is seeing machine income decline for much of the pub industry.

The upswing in profits from machines follows a deal between S&NPC and machine management and intelligence company Machine Insite.

The partnership has seen Machine Insite not only provide performance data but also take a role in S&NPC's machine management, under the guidance of S&NPC's machine manager, Sarah Barron.

Barron said the deal with Machine Insite has given S&NPC greater insight into its machine operation and provided a fillip for its lessees and machine suppliers.

"We were very keen to work with Machine Insite because we were interested in linking dispense data with machine data as it was an untested concept for the industry and we wanted to see if there was correlation between the two," she said.

"We also wanted to help lessees get the most from their machines to fulfil their profit-making potential.

"Before Machine Insite came on board, our commercial finance department were spending days each period reconciling the machine data and I had to personally look at each individual unit on a pub-by-pub and day-by-day basis, which was time consuming.

"However, Machine Insite's expertise and support has reduced this work and due to the exception-based focus that Machine Insite has enabled me to deliver it has taken away a lot of the day-to-day processes that I was embroiled in, freeing me to concentrate on high-level management and strategy.

"We have also seen an industry leading 8%+ year on-year increase in profit, as a result of the greater insight and control we have over our machine operation, thanks to Machine Insite's input."

By Neil Gerrard

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