Parking fees help Highland Show hit a record £4.45m

For the fourth year in succession, the Highland show delivered record revenue with the 2017 event generating £4.45 million; an increase of £104,000 from the previous year. Primarily this extra revenue came from an increase in gate receipts and car park revenue.

That increase in income helped its parent body; the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) to post a total income of £8.04m in the year ended 30 November 2017; a rise of £185,000 on the previous twelve months.

However the net operating deficit for RHASS was £234,000 compared with a surplus of £178, 000 in 2016 after expenditure increased to £8.27m due to budgeted investment and a £412,000 write off in development costs. Investment in Health and Safety items also saw a large increase.

RHASS chief executive Alan Laidlaw said that most of the capital investment had gone “underground” as the Society had spent it on improving the Ingliston showfield’s drainage and telecommunications networks.

Commenting on getting a replacement for the old Macrobert pavilion which

0 The Highland made £104k more than the previous year servedasamembers’facility for more than forty years but which was demolished before last year’s Highland show, Laidlaw said proposals for a replacement would go to the directors within the next few weeks but realistically, he said it would be “ambitious” to think there might be a facility in time for the 2019 show. A temporary tented facility would operate this year. Commenting on the financial write off in the annual report, he said these related to proposals around the East Gate and changes now made them unviable. A new hotel by the Moxy group which is part of Ikea is being built on some of the land and will provide investment income in the future. It is due to open later this summer.

Trading income, generated by the Society’s wholly owned subsidiary Highland Centre Ltd, remained static after a period of growth at £1.6m.

Sponsorship and membership, both important revenue streams, continued to grow and while the financial report showed a healthy surplus, this was mainly due to changes in how the charity reported its accounts rather than a cash injection.

Laidlaw added the Society would continue to meet its charitable remit, supporting Scottish agriculture and our significant financial support of the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET).

During 2017, RHET took some 77,562 young people and adults onto farms or round the Highland show.