| AGM NOTICE FOR OLD CLUB
(Tuesday 22nd March 2005) 
The Club have given notice of the final AGM of what was previously known as Wycombe Wanderers Football Club Limited. The legalities of the conversion to a plc has meant the former structure is lying dormant before being officially dissolved on 5th August 2005. The AGM is set for Wednesday 27th April 2005 in the Vere Suite at Adams Park.The attached Finacial Statements are for a 13 month period ending on 30th June 2004 and conclude all the activities prior to the vote that veried the change to a plc on 29th July 2004. Much of the detail was sent to members as part of the 'Financial Promotion' prior to the 29/7 EGM and in the Chairman's Report Ivor Beeks comments "The Board's objective is to apply enterprise and initiative in the development and maintenance of a vibrant stream of business designed to resource the core activity at the Club and generate success on the field of play." The Financial Statements report a turnover of £4.56m for the 13 month period compared to £4.64m for the previous season. Commercial and marketing revenues were also reported to slightly down while broadcasting fees, mainly due to increased live TV coverage, rose from £46,437 to £117,745. Average League attendances at Adams Park during the reporting period were 5,291 compared to 5,982 for the 2002/3 season, although match receipts were only marginally down to £1.23m from £1.24m. Elsewhere, the total staff costs for the 2003/4 season were £2.62m compared to £2.7m in 2002/3, although the average monthly number of employees at the Club dropped from 84 to 77. A Director emolument for the accounting period was shown to be a little under £21,000. It's understood this was for the services of Financial Director Rod Tomlin who, along with the Board, championed the plc conversion. Tomlin has not been recruited to the plc Board although Chairman Ivor Beeks and Vice Chair Brian Kane remain from the 'old brigade'. The Chairman's report continued "The result for the 13 months to 30th June 2004 was a net trading lost of £574,000 and a consequent reduction in the value of net assets in the balance sheet to £1.46m. After allowing for depreciation and the amortisation of players contracts the loss in cash terms totalled £227,000. The only material item of capital expenditure was the purchase of Nathan Tyson. The net result of the above items was to increase the bank overdraft by £169,000 to £1.1m after the receipt of season ticket sales of £357,000 net of VAT." The Chairman's report concluded "This all confirmed the Boards’ (sic) view that matters could not continue unchanged. The decision to convert to a plc and bring in new investors needed to be completed." The resulting conversion to a plc has since generated an estimated £600,000 of new capital before the initial share offer closed at the end of February 2005. Perhaps disappointing for the Board and other advocates of the change has been the fact that Steve Hayes from Club sponsors loans.co.uk has been the only significant new investor. COTN understands that Hayes has invested £250,000 into the plc and sees the task of turning the new company around as a 'challenge'. He has been the main instigator behind bringing in a new administration team to the Club, including General Manager John Harrison. Harrison has since rubbished the three year business plan presented to members last year describing the plan's break even target as "pretty unrealistic" at a Fans Forum in January 2005. Meanwhile, estimates on net losses for the plc in the current campaign range from £300,000 to £600,000. But Hayes remains confident he can turn it around, commenting at the same Fans Forum "What we are trying to do is to look at every single department and I've just come in with a Club that is losing money and been able to see that there is improvements that can happen in every single area. Let's just assume that everything was running really efficiently and we were losing £300,000, well we are in a real problem because how do you turn it around when it's already running efficiently? It's not running efficiently and it's not running efficiently in many areas." It's also understood that Hayes along with Brian Kane and Ivor Beeks have been forced to take out further loan notes of £100,000 to keep the banks happy while a new business plan is formulated. However, none of the 'gang of three' can purchase signficantly more shares as they are already on the 25% maximum single shareholder threshhold. And Hayes warned the process of change would not happen overnight, adding "We need the support of all the people who work here at Wycombe to be able to turn those things around but what I don't want to do and I'm sure the other Directors don't want to do, is this time next year to shell out another £100,000 pounds just to keep the Club afloat." Click here to read all the latest Wycombe news |
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