Choppy waters see Mariners plunge to loss
Grimsby Town Football Club slipped to a loss of almost £1.7m in the year to the end of May 2024, following a disappointing season in which the club finished in 21st place in League Two.
The loss follows to successful seasons for the Mariners that included a play-off promotion and FA Cup run. 2023/24 saw income returned to “more usual levels” with a decrease in turnover of £1.09m to £5.72m.
The 2022/23 season saw Grimsby Town make a profit of £275,000 before tax.
Compared to the previous year, there was further investment into salaries and wages. This included both playing budget and back-office support.
Player trading profits were consistent with the previous year with income received from both the sale of players and receipts of contingent fees via sell on clauses. Among the contributions to this figure of £291,000 was proceeds from the sale of Kamil Conteh to Bristol Rovers and a sell-on fee from Peterborough United for the onward sale of Siriki Dembele to AFC Bournemouth.
Town said much of this was ploughed back into the playing squad with £213,000 invested in incoming transfer fees.
The Club and invested £138,000 into the youth set up on top of the grants and donations received which, combined, totalled £499,000.
Investment in the Mariners’ Blundell Park home and the Cheapside training ground continued with £333,000 spent during the year. This was alongside a bill of £335,000 for repair and maintenance costs.
The accounts do not reflect the conversion of £2.7m of debt to ordinary shares by 1878 Partners Limited (the investment company set up by Andrew Pettit and Jason Stockwood to hold shares in the company) which happened after the financial year end.
Applied to the May 2024 accounts, this conversion of debt to shares would have resulted in the net liabilities of £2.3m shown in the 31st May 2024 balance sheet being converted to net assets of around £400,000.
The accounts also don’t reflect the new equity investments made by 1878 Partners Limited by Jason, Andrew and some of its new investors, including James Harrison and Miles Gooseman, which again took place after the year end.
GTFC chair, Andrew Pettit, said: “The results to 31st May 2024 show how challenging it is for lower league clubs to find a route to financial sustainability. We are far from the highest spenders in League Two and have an amazingly loyal supporter base.
“We are continuing to lobby for a fairer financial distribution within the football pyramid which will hopefully occur if an independent football regulator is created.
“Under Polly’s [Bancroft, Grimsby Town’s CEO] excellent leadership, the Club remains focused on developing new streams of revenue and growing our culture of evidence and data-based decision making.
“Jason and I are also continuing to seek to attract a wider investor base who share our passion for the Club that is central to our town’s identity and its social and community values.”
