Ster-Kinekor’s big plans to stay alive

Ster-Kinekor wants to diversify its offerings by launching console gaming and learning experiences at its cinemas, according to CEO Mark Sardi.

The South African cinema giant has been struggling recently, cutting 52 jobs and closing two movie theatre locations in May and June 2024.

Speaking to eNCA, Sardi explained that the company is looking at other avenues to generate revenue and use its cinemas.

“What we have is really big spaces in very attractive malls that are very secure,” said Sardi.

“I think we’ve also got spaces where we can start to do other clever things like e-gaming, and I think you can bring an education element there as well.”

Regarding the education element, the CEO says Ster-Kinekor hopes to partner with schools to provide students with a safe environment from Monday to Thursday where they can learn things like coding.

“If you want to play the Ferarri or Rolls Royce version of the PS5, you can do so in the same venue,” said Sardi.

He also indicated that the “e-gaming” offering could lead to Ster-Kinekor hosting tournaments.

“Believe it or not, people will pay lots of money to watch other people twiddle their thumbs and play these games. So there’s a world where you can create an arena around all that,” said Sardi.

Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro have attempted to use e-sports to fill empty theatres in the past.

Following its recent retrenchments, Ster-Kinekor said it was once again exploring PlayStation gaming on its big screens as an option.

In April 2024, the South African cinema giant announced plans to lay off 226 employees and close nine of its cinema locations.

It said factors like the challenging economic environment, load-shedding, and the impact of the Hollywood strikes had resulted in poor cinema attendance, necessitating a restructuring.

On 13 February 2024, it issued impacted staff with a section 189(3) notice, beginning the retrenchment of 226 of Ster-Kinekor’s 728 employees.

Mark Sardi, CEO at Ster-Kinekor Theatres

It specified that affected positions included those in the CEO’s office, marketing, human capital, sales, business operations, finance, head office, regional operations, and information technology.

Fortunately, Ster-Kinekor didn’t have to go through with most of its planned job cuts. In June 2024, Sardi said it laid off far fewer staff members than initially anticipated.

“We initially assessed that 226 jobs might be affected. However, we ended up retrenching just 52 employees, and these were largely head-office based,” he said.

“A positive outcome in that we managed to mitigate the overall impact on headcount.”

It had also planned to close nine of its cinema sites. However, Sardi said only two locations were affected — Boardwalk in Richard’s Bay and the Greenstone Mall.

“Of the remaining sites identified, the company is currently in discussions with landlords and partners to consider different entertainment and education strategies within the cinema space,” said Sardi.

Ster-Kinekor relaunched Throwback Cinema in May 2024 to bolster cinema attendance, offering South African moviegoers R50 tickets for classic titles like Chicago, Notting Hill, and Back to the Future 1.

Sardi said the Hollywood actors’ strikes had resulted in a 12 to 18-month gap in title releases that were scheduled for 2024.

“This has negatively impacted our steps to recovery. However, we have launched ‘Throwback Cinema’, which is designed to re-release classic titles at R50 per ticket to remind our customers of the unparalleled experience in a cinema,” he said.

The first set of Throwback Cinema titles ran from 17 May 2024 until 6 June 2024. Following this successful run, Ster-Kinekor announced that it would continue to offer classic titles for another month.

It lined up four more movies that will be aired weekly throughout July 2024, including Braveheart, Steel Magnolias, The Mummy Returns, and Pretty Woman.

“Throwback Cinema allows us to bring back some timeless films for our customers to relive and enjoy once again, at a very affordable ticket price,” said Ster-Kinekor chief marketing officer Lynne Wylie.

“We’ve had a wonderful time going through the catalogues to select the films, and we are sure everyone who books a ticket to watch one of them will have a similar big-screen experience.”