The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (QEIICC), London’s most prestigious purpose built centre for professional meetings and events, today announces successful financial results for 2007/8, enabling the Centre to pay back a dividend of £1.6million to the Government’s Exchequer – an increase of three percent on the £1.55 million dividend paid back in 2006/07.

Turnover for the 2007/08 financial year was almost £11million – an increase of three percent, whilst costs have been held to a two percent increase over those for the previous period.

The surplus on ordinary activities for the year was ahead of 2006/07 by 13 percent at £2.27million.

The annual dividend paid back to The Exchequer is forecast to increase from the current £1.6 million to over £2.20 million per annum by 2012.  Space occupancy of the Centre is also being forecast to increase from around 70 percent to over 80 percent by the time the London Olympic Games are held.

Over 368 meetings and events were held at the Centre during the 2007/08 financial year, with 65 percent of these repeating from previous years. A major achievement was the expansion of the third floor enabling the Centre to increase its capacity to host conferences for up to 1300 delegates, thus creating opportunities to explore new markets.

As a result of an injection of both cash and talent, increased revenues from in-house audio visual (AV) were earned – AV income now represents more than 60 percent of the total value of room hire and has grown by 25 percent over the past five years.

Leith’s catering standards continue to be an important ingredient of the Centre’s success with a move to the use of more quality British products and the introduction of healthy menu options.  MITIE, the well known facilities company, won the contest to manage the mechanical and electrical systems and have already engineered substantial reductions in energy usage. 

Sustainability is at the core of the Centre’s daily operations – activities such as promoting a paperless environment and increasing the rate of recycling are among recently introduced green initiatives.