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The Profit Factor
The Profit Factor

GTFC Accounts - Chairmans Statement

By: GTFC
Date: 07/12/2006

THE Grimsby Town Football Club plc press release for accounts declaring a booked profit of £407,000. The chairman would like to make the following comments.

"The reported profit of £407,000 is a little misleading when in fact the net cash out flow for the year required an additional £260,00 to service the club's debt, £250,000 of which has been provided by the club's board. £150,000 in shares and £100,000 in further loans.

"The share holders funds have substantially improved due to the revaluation of Blundell Park in preparation for the part-funding for the reallocation of the football club."

Financial Review

Review of the significant points arising from this year's financial statements together with some commentary on some of the supporting information behind the key figures broken the summary down into the following key areas:

Income

The increased turnover of just under £1m arises mainly from the two Coca Cola Cup fixtures against premier league opposition and the Club's appearance in the division two play-offs. Behind the headline increase of £1m I consider the following points to be of significance.

  • Gate receipts directly attributable to the cup games were £428k, an increase of £340k over 2005. It must be borne in mind that part of these gate receipts are paid to the visiting Club and just under £100k was paid out to these Clubs, an increase of some £60k over the previous season.

  • The media facility fees for the television rights to the two Coca Cola Cup and play off games was £280k.

  • The increase in gate receipts for league matches this year was some £80k. Significantly, however, the average league attendance only rose by some 4.2% even taking into account the Club's position in the league throughout most of the season. 2005's average league attendance being 4,943, 2006's 5,151. Ignoring season tickets the average amount paid per head of attendance increased by 9.5% over the season to an amount of £5.29 per head of attendance from the previous season's £4.83 per head. It should also be noted that the average receipt per season ticket decreased by 2.8%.

  • The average attendance for the Cup games doubled being 5,878 for this season compared with 2,913 during the previous season. The income generated also nearly doubled to £11.24 per head as opposed to £5.81 per head when adjusting for amounts paid to visiting Clubs.

  • There was a commensurate increase in commercial income and other associated income arising from these matches of approximately £90k. Other factors affecting the income for the year are a full year's operation of the McMenemy Suite which has contributed £150k additional turnover.

  • One item that has gone in the reverse direction is other operating income which is principally being affected by increased competition for the Club's lottery and other fundraising activities which is beginning to squeeze the amount of income that can be generated from these sources.

    Expenditure

    Administrative costs have increased by just over £470K. The two principal reasons for this are the costs directly associated with playing the two Coca Cola cup games and costs directly associated with the play off final. These costs include additional policing and associated security costs, together with the costs directly associated with the sponsorship income generated from these games; for example, sponsorship packages, printing and other miscellaneous expenditure.

    The other significant cost increase during the season were wages, which apart from additional match day staff that were required for the reasons stated above, is more or less exclusively as a result of an increase in players wages.

    The full cost of these additional wages is not reflected in these accounts, as players were brought into the club during the season and the additional costs of some of these players will also be borne during the current season.

    Overview

    Although the Club showed a healthy operating profit it can be seen from the above that this in essence is more or less solely attributable to the two home Cup games against Premiership opposition and the club's appearance in the Division 2 play offs. Although additional income was generated from the home league matches, this in itself was not a significant contribution to the improved results, and when taking inflation into account, I would suggest that this has not kept pace with the increased costs of operating the club; particularly when taking into account the reduction in income per head for the season tickets.

    Other than contributing towards the increased wage costs and covering the costs directly associated with staging the Cup games, the profit generated from this year's trading has been fully absorbed by the company to assist the directors in servicing the debt to the Inland Revenue and funding the costs that are necessary to move the new stadium project forward.

    Even though over £160k has been raised from the issue of new shares, at the end of the financial year the company's debt situation had actually worsened by some £100k, this being supported by additional loans and other commitments from the directors during the current financial year."

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