2020 ANNUAL REPORT

27 TREASURER’S REPORT by the General Committee and ExecutiveTeam to support the need for agile decision-making during the unprecedented circumstances. Those early financial forecasts, compiled during March and into April, showed a range of projections for the year ending 30 September, largely based on varying degrees of match attendance, with estimated deficits ranging from £1.2m to £3.7m. The most pessimistic set of attendance assumptions was based on a scenario that none of us could have imagined at the start of 2020: that no members or spectators would enter Trent Bridge throughout the season, that no international matches would take place at our venue, that the Royal London competition and its Cup Final would be cancelled and that the launch of The Hundred would be delayed by a year. To add some perspective, we had budgeted to generate £12m of income during the period April to September 2020, and that opportunity appeared to have been taken away with what felt like a moment’s notice. We took decisive action and measures implemented by the club over the course of the first few months involved stringent cost control, utilisation of the furlough scheme, receipt of rate relief and a request for all staff and players to sacrifice salary. As the pandemic progressed and the inevitability of our predicament became clearer, both in the short and medium term, we extended our actions.We made arrangements in principle for loans to support liquidity, asked our members to consider donating their 2020 subscriptions where they were able and sadly undertook a programme of staff redundancies. During this period the ECB were very supportive and provided upfront payments to assist with cash flow, along with grant funding that made a positive impact. Such assistance partly explains the rather healthy closing cash balance in the accounts of £1.7m. However, this was also supplemented by cash retained from international cricket buyers defer- ring purchases, hence our creditors increased in corresponding fashion. Through the collective measures put in place, we were able to tentatively make our way through the crisis. Greatly assisted by the packages of support outlined above, in addition to renegotiated terms with our loyal and understanding commercial partners in the light of television coverage and live streaming – and supported by the generosity of our members – our final income for the year amounted to £9.2m; a great deal healthier than had previously looked likely. Whilst the result in itself doesn’t bring an end to the challenges we face; it does allow us to exist, to reassess for future years and to make plans to help the club recover its financial position. The chart below highlights, in summary, the major contributing factors that allowed the club to move away from what could have been a terminal deficit to a positive financial result. Despite the relative financial success of the year in the context of the circumstances, we are still faced with a difficult period ahead. Ultimately, we produced a result that was around £550k lower than our expected surplus for 2020. As has been reported in previous years, we operate on a cyclical basis and having a year unexpectedly impacted in this way will leave us with the challenge of recovering that shortfall, despite the difficult landscape we find ourselves operating within. We remain positive in regard to the medium-term forecast. But, as always, that position is built upon assumptions and is set against a backdrop of Covid-19 related uncertainty and unpredictability that is likely to prevail for some time to come.Whilst the significant challenge remains, a viable financial plan is in place. In summary of the year passed, there is a clear case for recognising our performance as being welcome in the face of such adversity, and I would like to extend my thanks to all those involved in the collective effort to move the club away from immediate financial peril and to a position of relative safety. Our players and staff who all sacrificed their salaries, our loyal members who provided financial support with their donations and our governing body, the ECB, should all be thanked on behalf of the club for rising to the occasion and allowing us to produce a financial result which could never have been contemplated during the early stages of the pandemic.