JOB CUTS AT SKI CLUB OF GB
29th January 2020
Last modified on May 15th, 2021
The UK’s oldest ski club is facing more difficulties as it attempts to deal with losses of almost £1 million. Staff are losing their jobs.
The Ski Club of Great Britain is going through a period of turmoil.
Its Chief Executive left after little more than a year.
It was forced to abandon its popular service where trained leaders showed members around the slopes.
Its annual report, published in November, showed a loss of more than £840,000.
The Club told the AGM that it would take £1.25 million from its investment reserves in an attempt to ensure a budget surplus next year.
Two months later its chairman, Malcolm Bentley, resigned.
Now, members have been given more bad news.
They’ve been told to expect another significant shortfall this year.
The financial situation is so bad that ‘several’ jobs will go.
However some may argue that the jobs need to go as they have been created in recent years on projects that are not delivering results to members.
The news came in an update e-mailed to members by the Treasurer, Angus Maciver.
It has been shown to us by numerous members who are horrified at what has become of their Club and fear for its future.
“Unfortunately, there will be another significant shortfall this year, because the problems of last year were not uncovered early enough this financial year to avoid them,” he says.
The problems are said to be caused by:
- a continuing shortfall in high value income such as insurance, advertising and membership
- this shortfall was compounded by an over-investment in costs, mostly marketing
“I believe that the team now know what needs to be done to bring the club finances back into balance for the future,” Angus Maciver says.
“I am also confident that the club remains viable with significant reserves, enough to cover any shortfall and enough remaining to ensure we have time to fix the problems”
The Club is taking a series of steps to get back on a sound financial footing.
They include making ‘several redundancies’, freezing recruitment and introducing new budgetary and financial controls.
The email says there will be more savings to come.
The new interim chairman, Trevor Campbell Davis, is a qualified accountant who is said to be bringing new ideas and experience to help the Club improve its processes and services.
“Despite the challenges we face this year, we are working to make membership of the Club better than ever,” Angus Maciver says.
“We will be launching various ideas to enhance your membership throughout the year.”
Membership of the Club has been falling year on year.
The latest annual report showed there were 24,776 members in 2019, that’s 3,000 fewer than in 2017.
