Letters from the Manager's Office: Welcome to the Astoria Ayr

Dear members, 

A belated Happy Easter to all our wonderful members from far and wide. This month we welcome a new cinema operator to the area. As many of you will have heard, Merlin Cinemas acquired the old ODEON in Ayr and this past weekend saw the first paying audiences back inside. As lovers of retro cinemas this is fantastic news. A warm welcome from us here at the Broadway. 

A few folk have said words to the effect of “you must be worried now that the ODEON has re-opened” and the answer is a resounding “no!”. Far from worried, we are delighted! 

It is difficult to convey just how under-served South Ayrshire is by cinemas. There are 200,000 people within a 20-minute journey of the Broadway – that’s a huge number – and prior to the Merlin opening, just one cinema in Kilmarnock to serve them. The UK average suggests we should have at least three cinemas in our area. Indeed, in our own business plan we assumed not only would the ODEON be open, but a new multiplex in the Kyle Centre would also be operating! The fact another operator has spotted the great cinema-going

opportunity in South Ayrshire is validation, not competition.

Merlin are a great cinema operator who really care about their audiences and presenting films in the right way. The more people who get back into the cinema-going habit, and who get used to a quality offering, the better. The Astoria and the Broadway mean that South Ayrshire is turning from a barren cinematic desert into a beautiful film paradise. Guy Walker, Chair, Friends of the Broadway.