TRANMERE’S expertise in developing and selling on young players enabled them to post a profit of just over £200,000 last season.
The £600,000 sale of winger Dale Jennings to Bayern Munich and structured compensation payments for full-back Aaron Cresswell’s move to Ipswich Town kept the Wirral club from dropping into the red during a difficult year.
Turnover dropped on declining gate receipts during the year ended June 2012, while operating expenses rose from £3,634,562 in 2011 to £4,037,220, largely due to an increase in players’ wages costs.
However transfer fee income was worth £951,962 compared to £40,692 the previous year.
Chairman Peter Johnson said: “I am delighted to report a profit for the year of £207,323, thanks in no small part to the sales of Dale Jennings to Bayern Munich and Aaron Cresswell to Ipswich Town, emphasising the importance of the youth development scheme.
“However the continuing decline of gate receipts – down a further 7% during the year – together with smaller football related income streams from the club shop, match programmes and car park, explain most of the £114,079 reduction in turnover.
“There’s always upward pressures on operating expenditure and the main contributor was a 13% uplift in players’ payroll costs.”
The club’s total wage bill for 46 players, training and management staff, 22 non-playing, full-time staff and 41 non-playing part-timers was £2,242,626, up from £1,947,468 the previous year.
Johnson said the decision to part company with manager Les Parry last March had been a sad one, given Parry’s 20 years service to the club, mostly as a physiotherapist.
The chairman also paid tribute to the work of Parry’s successor, Ronnie Moore, who guided the team clear of the threat of relegation in the final weeks of the 2011/12 League One campaign.
Johnson added that the manager, coaching staff and players deserve a lot of credit keeping Tranmere in the promotion frame through most of the current season.
The accounts show Tranmere’s debt to Birkenhead-born businessman Johnson, who owns a controlling 60% stake in the club, to be £5,033,419.
Other debts, including bank overdrafts, are worth just over £2 million.
