So last year's ill-advised Competition Commission ruling has finally come home to roost in an abrupt way. Cineworld have just announced they are selling their Cambridge multiplex cinema to some no-name third-rate company I never heard of called The Light.
I can't overstate how badly this whole situation has been handled. A closure was initially expected last year in Autumn as that's when the Competition Commission (now the Competition and Markets Authority) decision time limit expired, but nothing happened and Cineworld continued to keep quiet. It's obvious now that they've been trying to do a deal behind the scenes for some time.
The news broke this morning with The Light clearly jumping the gun and revealing that they were in talks to take it over, but as the day went on things escalated quickly with word of signs coming down and fixtures and fittings being measured up by engineers.
I decided that as the cinema was closing it'd be a great time to go there after work, so I went and saw Kingsman at 5pm, and as I was coming out, the shutters were already coming down:
Thanks for the movies, Cineworld, but no thanks for the way you handled the closure.
Their blog post claims The Light will honour Unlimited Cards for the next three months, but there's nothing on The Light's website to support that (indeed their website contains no mention of their new Cambridge acquisition at all, so they've clearly been caught flat footed as well). Whether it's now or in three months' time though, looks like I'll be cancelling mine.
Are any other Cambridge (UK) gaffers affected by this? What do you think of how it's been handled?
I can't overstate how badly this whole situation has been handled. A closure was initially expected last year in Autumn as that's when the Competition Commission (now the Competition and Markets Authority) decision time limit expired, but nothing happened and Cineworld continued to keep quiet. It's obvious now that they've been trying to do a deal behind the scenes for some time.
The news broke this morning with The Light clearly jumping the gun and revealing that they were in talks to take it over, but as the day went on things escalated quickly with word of signs coming down and fixtures and fittings being measured up by engineers.
I decided that as the cinema was closing it'd be a great time to go there after work, so I went and saw Kingsman at 5pm, and as I was coming out, the shutters were already coming down:
Thanks for the movies, Cineworld, but no thanks for the way you handled the closure.
Their blog post claims The Light will honour Unlimited Cards for the next three months, but there's nothing on The Light's website to support that (indeed their website contains no mention of their new Cambridge acquisition at all, so they've clearly been caught flat footed as well). Whether it's now or in three months' time though, looks like I'll be cancelling mine.
Are any other Cambridge (UK) gaffers affected by this? What do you think of how it's been handled?