The new owners of the Odeon cinema chain have promised to go full steam ahead with an £8 million scheme for a multiplex in Colchester.

Cinven, which bought the chain from the Rank Group for an estimated £280 million yesterday, said it would forge ahead with plans to transform the old Post Office in Head Street into a new eight screen cinema.

A spokesman for the venture group said: "All the plans will be carried out and it will be business as normal. In fact we intend to pump even more resources into the Odeons to upgrade the cinemas."

The new complex is set to open within the next two years. The present Odeon, in Crouch Street, will then close.

Odeon is the UK's biggest cinema estate with 464 screens on 75 sites including the branches in Colchester, Chelmsford and Ipswich.

Cinven, already owns the ABC chain which currently operates 174 screens at 57 branches including Brentwood. These will be renamed Odeon.

The new cinemas will boost Cinven's share of all UK box office takings to 26 per cent. Its main contender UCI has 16.5 per cent.

Rank will use the profits from the sale of the cinema chain to cut its debts and push forward with other projects including the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Its decision to sell the Odeon estate ends a 60-year business relationship with the cinema industry.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.