Ster Century

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Ster Century was a cinema company in the UK and Ireland. There were 6 Ster Century cinemas, in the UK: Basingstoke, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Norwich, Romford and one in Dublin, Ireland. The Dublin Liffey Valley Shopping Centre cinema - the first Ster Century to open - is one of the largest in the UK and Ireland, in terms of footfall.

Established in 1996, the company was a spin-off from the South African cinema chain, Ster-Kinekor. Ster Century's first cinema was opened in 1998 in partnership with Assos Odeon, a cinema company based in Greece, under the name Ster Odeon.

In 1999 Ster Century opened its first cinemas under its own brand. By the end of the year it had operations in Dublin, Ireland; Brno, Czech Republic; Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland; and Budapest, Hungary.

Development continuted in 2000 with further cinemas opened in the UK, Spain, Greece, Slovakia and additional sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.

By mid 2002 Ster Century had sold off its interests in Poland, Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic to concentrate on its operations in the UK and Ireland.

In 2003 the assets in the UK and Ireland was sold to Aurora Entertainment in a Management buy-out, with remaining assests in Spain and Slovakia being sold off to local cinema operators. In 2005, it was sold again to Vue, and the cinemas are in the process of rebranding.

As of April 2006, the Dublin cinema has rebranded its printed material and much of its signage to Vue, although some smaller elements (seat covers, "no phone use" signs, etc) still read "Ster Century" or bear the Ster Century logo.