Cineworld founder to stand down as chief executive

Cinema operator Cineworld today said that chief executive Steve Wiener, who founded the business 18 years ago, is to leave next year.

Wiener, who has been in the cinema industry for 44 years, said: “In 1995 my wife Jenny and I wrote a business plan to start a cinema company. We expected over a five-year period to open five to seven multiplex cinemas and sell it on to one of the big operators.

“Today, in 2013, Cineworld is the number one cinema chain in the UK and has been for more than three years.”

Weiner plans to leave at the end of March and Cineworld chairman Anthony Bloom said the firm would make an announcement about his successor “in due course”.

Cineworld has 101 venues across the UK and Ireland, and last month said it plans to open up to 25 more sites over the next four years.

Bloom said: “This is an exciting time for Cineworld as it continues with ambitious UK expansion plans.”