THE owner of Chester Racecourse ran a steady course increasing its profitability, despite gloomy industry predictions.

Chester Race Company, which also operates Bangor-on-Dee racecourse, as well as the Holiday Inn Express hotel within Chester Racecourse, saw pre-tax profits increase 12% to £2.23m in 2009.

Turnover was flat at £13.9m, with a small increase in racing-related revenues – which accounts for nearly 90% of the company’s income – largely making up for a slight fall in the hotel’s turnover.

Chester Race chief executive Richard Thomas said: “The group faced a challenging time with the current economic climate as all predictions indicated it would be difficult, so it was particularly pleasing to see an increase in numbers of race goers during the year.

“The sales mix was certainly affected by the economic climate, with corporate hospitality being the hardest hit. We moved to mitigate this downturn by introducing for 2009 affordable packages at varying levels and this meant we saw a 15% reduction in corporate hospitality sales.”

Attendances at Chester’s Roodee rose by 2,000 people to 270,000, although Bangor was down by nearly 3,000 to 47,300.

Chester was the fourth-best attended racecourse last year, behind only Ascot, Aintree and Cheltenham.

This year has seen some very strong attendances, including more than 50,000 people across a July weekend and 43,000 at its annual family fun day in August. It also expects a big crowd for this weekend’s two-day Autumn Festival, with Mr Thomas confident it will “be a busy day for us”.

He added: “In view of the current climate, the Race Company downscaled development projects for 2009. £1.6m was spent on capital projects during the year, the largest projects being the development of the paddock area with improved toilet facilities, the new County Stand entrance and the refurbishment of the County Stand and Leverhulme corporate hospitality boxes.”

The Holiday Inn Express maintained the number of rooms sold at 26,000, aided by a much stronger second half of the year.

However, it faced increased competition because of the economy and the opening of more hotels in the area, especially a direct competitor, Travelodge.

The company took its catering in- house towards the end of 2009, in time to serve nearly 7,000 people during the festive season.

It hopes that the restructure of its catering operation will allow it to create opportunities in the future which can “generate considerable additional turnover and profit”.