Rangers today posted a second profit in a row, around about a quarter of a million, in numbers which didn’t blow anyone away with their magnitude but did represent good operating figures being post Sevilla therefore including Calvin Bassey (£19M) and Joe Aribo’s (£6M) sales, and Champions League participation (£25M).
Those three gave us around £50M give or take, giving a healthy boost to the revenue which may actually have suffered a little following the terrible start to last season.
Generally Rangers’ turnover per annum is about £80M – we generate £80M revenue and we spend £80M overheads.
This accounting year basically saw us break even with a modest profit, indicating robust numbers, but as John Bennett rightly says, there is a lot of work ahead. So despite those big sales and UCL, they only helped sustain our number revenue levels rather than boosting the traditional levels hugely.
The fact is that even the last accounts weren’t shining – £5.9M was decent, and posted profit for the first time in an age, and we’ve managed to sustain that, but we do want bigger numbers going forward.
Generally Rangers want to be securing about £10M profit a financial year minimum to be healthy, but while the profit did fall £5.7M this annum, it’s still a good sign that we’re clearly in the black.
Not overwhelmingly, but it’s better than nothing.
This is why the chairman isn’t resting on his laurels. We need more, pure and simply, and Bennett agrees:
“Now, myself, the RIFC Board and our new executive management team must continue the work. Yet, it is not simply a continuation that is required: it is a raising of the bar. Having spent recent months getting closer to the daily operations of the club, it is clear to me that there is widespread scope for improvement.”
Yes there is. For all the King era got us out of a truly bad Llambias and Ashley era, it didn’t come close to getting us in a good financial place. This is what we hope the Bennett era with James Bisgrove can do.
We need a healthy level of revenue and wise spending – that has seen improvement but it needs to truly hammer down.
We seem to be being steered by good businessmen who know what they’re doing. They nailed it with the appointment of Philippe Clement, and we hope that and these numbers do see a good period of fortune and growth for this club.
Long may that continue.