Staff axed as Bass ditches Gala Bingo marketing team

Bass has disbanded the marketing department at its Gala Bingo operation and made head of marketing Tanya Cornford redundant.

The move comes after Bass’s AGM statement last week revealed admissions to the bingo chain were down four per cent and spend per head had fallen by one per cent compared with last year.

Cornford left last week, along with business development managers Colin Coleman and Sian Thomas, who were also made redundant. Together they looked after the operation of Gala’s top-performing prime clubs.

Their departures follow the redundancy of Gala operations director John Bingham last November. Gala says it is reviewing all its support services to find “the most efficient way to support operations and clubs”.

A spokeswoman says there are “no other redundancies at this stage”, although she refuses to comment on whether there will be further job losses. She says Gala’s programme of opening 13 new clubs in this financial year would continue.

Responsibility for advertising will pass to Gala managing director Ian Payne.