News
The Invercargill Licensing Trust has produced a healthy profit for the 2015/2016 financial year, exceeding budget expectations.
General manager Greg Mulvey said the ILT (Parent) pre-tax operating surplus, before grants, was $8.462 million – considerably higher than last year’s result of $6.844 million.
Photo: whatsoninvers.nz
Contributing influences were the inclusion of a gain on sale of the Waikiwi Tavern land and buildings and a lower level of project maintenance work embarked on during the year. When these two factors were excluded, the comparable trading profit before tax was $7.343 million compared to $6.844 million last year – an increase of 7.3%.
Total sales for the year were $84.8m – up 1.8 percent from $83.3m. Higher accommodation sales and off-premise beverage sales contributed to the increase, while restaurant sales were on par with last year and on-premise (bar) sales were down 4.2 percent.
“The fact it exceeded budget and was well ahead of last year’s result is very pleasing, not only for our Board and the wider Trust team, but the people of Invercargill,” Mulvey said.
The ILT Foundation’s net surplus of $4.552 million represented a 5 percent increase on the previous result of $4.332 million. The Consolidated (Group) surplus after tax, which includes the Foundation, was $15.218m, compared to $9.872m last year. This year’s result benefited from the inclusion of a large taxation refund relating to ILT from prior years.
ILT President Alan Dennis said the solid financial performance enabled $8.03m in funding to be invested back into the community – $4.002 million from the ILT and $4.027 from the ILT Foundation.
“Our mission to return significant levels of funding to the community is one we take great pride in and a solid financial result enables us to continue funding hundreds of organisations, ultimately benefiting all aspects of Invercargill life,” Dennis said.
“While it’s a slight increase on last years grants of $8.012 million, it still represents a substantial level of funding provided to strengthen our local community.”
The Trust’s Annual General Meeting will be held at Elmwood Gardens on Tuesday, August 30, at 7.30pm.