Goodwood glories in racy profits of £1.8m
GOODWOOD, the 12,000-acre West Sussex estate run by Lord March, saw profits almost treble to £1.8million last year after the success of events including the Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed motorsport meetings and the Glorious Goodwood horse racing festival.
While most of the income at the estate near Chichester comes from its sporting events, Goodwood also has a 3,000-acre organic farm, two golf courses, a 94-room hotel, a fleet of vintage aeroplanes and its own cricket pitch.
Last year the group secured sponsorship from Qatar for its annual horse-racing festival. The commercial acumen of Lord March is seen as a model for how Britain’s country estates could thrive in the future. Group turnover for the year to December 31, 2014 increased 9 per cent from £67.2million to £73.3million. The company, which is ultimately owned by a family trust, paid out a dividend of £658,000. The highest paid director, thought to be Lord March, was paid £216,000 last year.
Directors said that their mission was to develop Goodwood ‘as a global brand’ and said they were encouraged by the performance of each of its commercial divisions.
Last week Goodwood announced the provisional dates of the 2016 Festival of Speed and Revival, with tickets going on sale next month. Motor racing was first seen at Goodwood in 1936 but the track was closed in 1966, much to the regret of Lord March, who was 11 at the time.
One of the first things he did when taking over running the estate from his father, the Duke of Richmond, was to re-establish racing on the estate in 1993. Stars from the racing world who attended this years’s event included Jenson Button, Sir Jackie Stewart and Valentino Rossi.