Employees to own Merlin Cinemas

Merlin Cinemas is soon to become an employee property trust.

Ownership of the company is being transferred from current MD Geoff Greaves to an Employee Trust, which will own the company going forward.

The trust will protect the interests of the 320 people who work in the company’s cinemas and restaurants, located from Penzance in the tip of Cornwall to Thurso in the tip of Scotland.

The current management team based mainly in Redruth will not change and after the transition it will be business as usual.

Greaves will remain in a new support role with the intention of a gradual transition to retirement, while the MD reins will pass to co-director Craig May, who has worked for the company for almost 20 years.

Daisy Wren and Chris Lawrence, both experienced and long-time senior management employees, will become directors.

Greaves founded Merlin Cinemas in 1990 with the opening of the Savoy in Penzance and has since grown to 20 rural and coastal locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

He said: “This is a fantastic and exciting route to protect our company and our ethos and to reward all those people who together have been part of the success of bringing the magic of movies to so many people across the UK.

“I’ve always believed that the best place to see a film is at the cinema, it’s memorable and sociable and without your own local cinema people don’t go very often, which is why I believe so much in the cinema being local and committed to the community .”