THE organisation which runs Bournemouth’s leisure and entertainment venues is expanding into new areas and making more money.

BH Live is a not-for-profit charitable trust, set up in 2010 to run key assets including the BIC, the Pavilion and the Littledown and Stokewood centres.

Its chief executive, Peter Gunn, concedes some people might think of the trust as “an arm of the council”, but points out that it is a business in its own right.

“We are a leisure and venues organisation and we have a third string to the bow which is our catering operation,” he said.

“We’re established for a social purpose but we have to operate in a financially viable way. That’s where it’s a real balance between getting more people – through higher audiences for our entertainment venues and generating money for the economy through the BIC and conferencing – and making sure the operation is financially viable.”

Bournemouth council still owns the buildings in question, but BH Live generates revenue to invest into the venues and services.

For 2013-14, the trust’s annual review shows a surplus of £238,352, from a revenue of £20.27m.

In 2014, the trust took over the running of the Pyramids Centre for Portsmouth City Council and has launched catering outlets at Portsmouth and at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

“The reason we do catering is to bring money back into the conference and leisure and entertainment business. We need to be financially sustainable,” said Mr Gunn.

“The nature of our business is that I can’t remember a time when everything had a really good year. It does go up and down, it’s just natural. The more we diversify, the more we can spread the risk.”

He said he is sometimes asked why the trust does not operate exclusively in Bournemouth. “We need to diversify, we want to generate profit to bring back into the locality and invest, but also it means we get a better chance of retaining good staff and attracting high calibre staff,” he said.

BH Live was established with a mandate to improve participation in fitness and cultural events. But the leisure side of the business soon ran into the new phenomenon of ‘budget gyms’ opening in town centres, without overheads such as swimming pools and extensive teaching programmes.

“About three years ago, we had a discussion about how to respond to the budget gyms,” said Mr Gunn.

That response involved cutting prices, even though the leisure centres would never match the low-price players.

“We offered centres which had value for money and a whole range of facilities, which was our unique selling point,” said Mr Gunn.

“We pitched our prices between the budget gyms and the high end.”

The trust’s leisure centres could offer value for money but also more facilities and flexibility, he said. “That whole approach has increased our membership from 6,500 up to 14,000,” he added.

“We reduced our prices and that was a brave thing to do. I needed some convincing. Once you reduce them, there’s no way back. The equation was reduced membership prices got more people active.”

Another challenge for the conference side of the business has been the absence of the big autumn party political gatherings, which have recently deserted Bournemouth in favour of city centre venues such as Birmingham and Manchester.

But the Liberal Democrats are returning in 2015, alongside a list of major professional bodies and trade unions, including the RCN, Police Federation, GMB, RCN and TUC.

While some of those organisations have been frequent visitors, Mr Gunn said none of them could be taken for granted.

“They want more and more. They want better deals and they want better value,” he said.

“It’s so important to the town to stress that it’s not just about the conference centre. The conference centre is important but just as important, probably more so, is the experience.”

Factors such as transport, the quality of hotels, the natural environment and the general warmth of welcome were all key to delegates’ experience, he said.

“We talk just as much about investment in the town as the conference centre,” he added.

The building of a £60m Hilton Hotel, under construction along with flats at the Terrace Mount site near the BIC, will be crucial to attracting delegates, Mr Gunn said.

“What it will do is introduce more competition to the town which means the existing hotels all need to compete, which is a good thing. The more facilities you’ve got on your doorstep, the more you up your game.”

A conference delegate staying for one night is reckoned to be worth £250 to the town – and a good experience can make them want to come back.

“The first time I came here was for a conference and I remember saying to my wife, ‘we’ll have to go back there’,” Mr Gunn said.

BH Live employs more than 1,000 people, having created more than 250 new posts since it was established.

It is estimated to support 4,500 jobs locally, with 60 per cent of its suppliers being within an hour’s drive – so its success is important to the area.

“It’s early days but we’re starting to build a financially sustainable organisation which means that we can start reinvesting,” said Mr Gunn.

“We’re diversifying but in doing so we’re keeping hold of what we were set up to do.”

He added: “We want to be a business that Bournemouth is proud of.”

BH Live in figures, 2013-14

113 shows at the BIC

310 shows at the Pavilion

312,081 – attendance at BIC

202,833 – attendance at Pavilion

1,867,568 visits to leisure centres

88,479 conference and exhibition delegates – 20 per cent up year-on-year

99 per cent rise in leisure centre subscriptions, to 14,040

£4m – turnover of Terrace Cafes, up 33 per cent year-on-year

£45.8m economic benefit to local economy

Source: BH Live Annual Review, year ended March 31 2014