Revenues at National Museums Liverpool’s events business have exceeded £1m for the first time. Tony McDonough reports

An events business run by National Museums Liverpool (NML) is reporting record annual revenues and has broken through the £1m barrier for the first time.

In the fiscal year to March 31, 2023, Hosted by NML generated £1.3m after hosting 453 events at its seven Merseyside venues, catering for more than 28,000 guests. Income is now 38% ahead of the last full pre-pandemic year.

NML operates seven venues – Museum of Liverpool, World Museum, International Slavery Museum, Maritime Museum, Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House, all in Liverpool, and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Wirral.

In recent years they have become increasingly popular with people looking for venues for weddings, corporate events, awards ceremonies as well as locations for film and TV.

Highlights of 2022/23 included a major event for United Utilities and bespoke hospitality for Boodles jewellers, Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year production. Other filming location bookings included Amazon, the BBC, ITV and Paramount+.

Eurovision in May provided a successful start to the new financial year, with NML facilitating the ‘turquoise carpet’ launch event at Walker Art Gallery.

And the team created spinoff events across several venues, producing catering provision for crew and artists over 10 days, and hosting the BBC’s media hub at the Museum of Liverpool.

Karen O’Connor, director of commercial enterprises at NML, said: “It’s been a record year for our talented events team, with significant growth from our pre-pandemic levels and our biggest run of high-profile events to date.

“Our stunning venues are used creatively for corporate and private events – from a small boardroom with a history dating back to 1901, to a 1,000-capacity gallery in a museum that is home to incredible artefacts.

“We’ve refined the way we deliver event services for our customers and have big plans for the year ahead.”

Recent developments saw the Hosted by NML team recreate spaces within the Museum of Liverpool to provide a ‘blank canvas’ for clients to brand and visually customise events. This work has led to a 15% increase in event bookings at the venue.

It has also launched an external catering service, using its in-house chefs for other venues and events in the region, which do not sit within NML’s own portfolio.

Hosted by NML has won a series of industry awards this year, including Business Events Venue of the Year for Museum of Liverpool and Tourism Young Person of the Year for Neve Sutton, in the Liverpool City Region tourism awards.

It has also now received national recognition at the Conference & Events Awards 2023 for the achievements of its events team.

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Income generated from NML’s events business goes back into supporting the work of the museums and galleries, which attracted nearly 2.5m visitors last year.

Gareth Nuttall, head of sales for Hosted by NML, added: “The reputation of our chefs is highly regarded, and external catering is one aspect we’re now expanding.

“While corporate events at our venues remain our biggest growth area, we’ve had an uplift in activity across the entire events business – including filming, weddings and our own ticketed hospitality events.”