Annual Report: Losses Limited To £5.3M But ‘Severe Challenges Ahead’

The WRU Group turned over £79.9m during the year ending 30 June 2020 and was able to limit retained losses to £5.3m despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The Group’s Annual Report, published last week reveals the full impact of cancelling the final round 2020 Six Nations clash with Scotland – due to the health crisis – and describes how some 78% of income is derived from staging international matches featuring the Welsh team and the commercial activities associated with it. 

The postponement of the Scotland game alone amounted to c.£8.1m deficit and the Group’s loss was also influenced by the absence of other planned events such as Judgement Day and a Rammstein concert. But a swift response to the crisis saw the Group reduce costs. It paused and alleviated non-essential capital, reduced employee salaries and utilised the Government Coronavirus Job Retention scheme. This, together with £4.9m of income, provided by the Group’s share of CVC Capital Partners’ investment in the PRO14 competition, helped to mitigate the pandemic’s effect. 

Alongside the natural reduction in costs arising from the early curtailment of rugby activities, measures reduced costs by c.£1.9m in YE20 and are expected to further reduce costs by up to c.£2.5m in YE21.Decisive action meant the Group was able to continue with re-investment in community clubs, including making c.£1.0m available as emergency funds to assist with rebuilding after Storm Dennis and dealing with the Covid-19 issue. The Group’s re-investment in community rugby increased during the year to £4.6m (from £4.5m in 2019) and, although overall investment in the game decreased to £47.5m (2019: £49.6m), this is largely due to the unexpected early end to the rugby season.  

More here: https://www.wru.wales/2020/10/annual-report-ye20-losses-limited-to-5-3-but-severe-challenges-ahead/
Download Annual Report YE20 here: https://community.wru.wales/the-wru/reports/