|Chairman’s Statement
Having been closely associated with the Fund since its inception, I am well placed to begin my first Chairman’s Report by stating that at no time has the Board been more united. These days, boardroom disagreements are a rarity, with all Directors putting the interest of greyhound racing in general first, regardless of their affiliations.
The present incumbent has not been in post long enough for this productive harmony to be attributable to him, the foundations having been laid by the previous Chairman (more of whom later) and built on by a Board which is committed to enhancing both the image and the actuality of greyhound racing.
Economically, we are suffering in the same way as other leisure activities, and we are grateful to the betting industry’s representative bodies for their support and to all of the bookmakers, large or small, who contribute to the Fund. Before turning to the detail, however, I ask one favour. If you are in receipt of this Report, you are likely to be a bookmaker. We know that company reports are not everyone’s leisure reading, but even if you do no more than skim the pages please take just a few minutes to view the enclosed DVD, which illustrates why the activities of the Fund are so important – not just to greyhound racing but to your own business.
| Income On the face of it, a decline in contributions from the £9.9 million we reported a year ago (following a record £13.8 million in 2008-9) to £7.8 million can in no way be described as good news. Our original estimate for the year was £9.1 million, but as the economic situation worsened it soon became clear that this was not achievable and the Board had no choice but to implement two successive budget cuts during the year.
At one point, the Board was concerned that greyhound betting turnover would fall to such an extent that we might have been heading for considerably less than the £7.8 million finally achieved. However, the last few months of the year brought a limited but significant improvement on our forecast which we hope will continue.
Another positive note is the efforts being made by Steve Clare, who is retained in a consultancy role to promote both the virtue and the good business sense of contributing to the Fund, even in these difficult times.
For those who need prompting, the recommended rate of payment (as agreed with the betting industry’s representatives) is 0.6% of greyhound betting turnover. We are aware of the arguments put forward by bookmakers who decline to contribute, but we would ask them to look again at the realities – what greyhound racing does for their bottom line and what would be the impact on their profits if the sport were unable to sustain its present high levels of welfare and integrity and failed to attract sufficient numbers of new owners.
2 Annual Report 2010-2011
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