Rankin buys chunk of Utopian Leisure

Allan Rankin, the former chairman of Ultimate Leisure, has acquired a sizeable stake in Utopian Leisure, the company that was set up in October 2005 by the former Ultimate chief executive Bob Senior, the Morning Advertiser has learnt.

Rankin is understood to have bought a minority stake in Utopian at the start of this year, acquiring shares from Senior and Tim Wynn, the former Ultimate development director, who co-founded Utopian.

The move by Rankin means that a number of senior former Ultimate figures are now working at Utopian.

Alison Vaulkland and Carl Hornsby, both previously senior Ultimate executives, are now working as operations directors at Utopian.

The news of Rankin's share buys comes as Utopian unveiled turnover of £6.1m after pre-tax profit of £810,000 in the its first full year to 31 December 2006.

Turnover of around £16.5m and pre-tax profit of £3.5m is forecast for the current financial year. First year turnover was boosted by the acquistion of Tokyo Industries during the year although the company traded with just two sites until August.

Towards the end of the financial year, Utopian opened Loveshack in Durham and Box in Belfast's Odyssey complex.

Senior said: "New Year's Eve week in Belfast saw the biggest take for a week I've ever been involved in - New Year's Eve itself saw takings of £65,000."​

Last week, the Morning Advertiser reported that Utopian plans to open a 8,500 square foot Japanese restaurant called Fat Buddha above its Loveshack nightclub in Durham's Walkergate development.

Utopian opened its first Fat Buddha site, in partnership with local restaurateur Eddie Fung, in Belfast last month.