Super League and World Club champions Leeds Rhinos RLFC have returned to profitability off the pitch in a year when they also reached the Challenge Cup final.

Rhinos experienced an "indifferent first half of the season", according to filed accounts, before romping home at the business end of the campaign.

[url=http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/yorkshire/69349-more here[/url

Fantastic news - once again much kudos to Hetherington and Caddick. We often criticise the amount we have to pay for some of our Rhino related purchases but to turn a £40K loss into £0.5M profit (pre-tax) in 12 months is exceptional in the current economic climate.

Well done

I know there were some cost cutting measures going on in 2009/2010 so it looks like the club is benefitting from those savings now. Admittedly 2 finals helps the coffers somewhat but a half million pound profit is still impressive.

We're in good hands.

Has anyone looked in to these accounts to see if the £1m+ Leeds CF&A loaned the Tykes/Carnegie in 2010 has been repaid or written off?

Like this bit...mirrors the team performance brilliantly:
Rhinos experienced an "indifferent first half of the season", according [ito match reports[/i, before romping home at the business end of the campaign.

We should donate it to the Bulls

Or pay Buderus for another year

Or just throw it into a bloody great big hole in the ground!
Sorry, same thing.

Great news,and the club is still getting slagged off on the other forum's.Well they can all keep their MOS.We will stay in the cap win trophies and show a profit

We could buy them out with that much.

Getting to both major finals will have been a massive help - you wonder what the figures may have looked like had the club made it to neither.

I'd hate to think we were in the position of having to make at least one final a year to break even.

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... -Neil.html Guffaw / lol / s etc

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... -Neil.html Guffaw / lol / s etc

I'm sure I've seen that getting to the CC final equates to about a quarter of a million extra income, and I believe that the GF similar, but less, do these figure indicate that we're only profitable on the basis of getting to a final or two each year?

If so, thats a bit worrying

As Brian Mac alluded to a couple of weeks ago ,there are very few FA prem clubs and football league clubs running at a profit either

Great news and once again shows GH and Mr Caddick are the right people to run our club.

Depends on how you want to run your club 'spose.

As a business with a clear strategy on business model, long term planning, astute, carefull management.

Or as a plaything.

To turn around this club the way GH & PC have done is testament not only to their business savvy but their ability to make tough descisions that are usually bemoaned in the short term and lauded in the long term.

Long may Darth continue.

Dont we give all the monday we make for getting to finals back to the players in the form of winning bonuses? If thats the case the £500k if made up of a CC final appearence and grand final in will have gone back to the lads

so What kind of bonus will the team have been on for winning the GF?

Have just had a quick flick through the accounts - these cover Leeds CF&A Limited whose principal activity is "the staging of professional Rugby League football". The RU club trades through an entirely separate company.

In the previous year, 2010, Leeds RL made a small loss - primarily as provision was made in that year for the HMRC issue. The lack of this in 2011 has enabled a rebound but the profits of £596k before tax are still quite remarkable in the present environment. The directors' report notes that, the HMRC liability has been "concluded satisfactorily and settlement reached".

The loan of £1.4m remains outstanding from the RU club but has not been provided against despite their quite disastrous financial position. We had £2.23m in the bank although I'm fairly sure HMRC hadn't been paid out at the year end. Once that clears out and assuming the RU club return our cash (or whoever has guaranteed it on their behalf) then it will leave us with the best part of £3m to make a start on the South Stand financing.

Thanks for the detail MjM. Interesting on the RU loan.

Good information that mate, Good work.

Listening to radio leeds on tuesday the union funding from the RFU has dropped to £300k per year. The big earners have been told to leave

Do the 2011 accounts show any income from the Harris compensation or was that all finalised in 2010? And was there any saving from the 2010 HMRC provision brought forward into 2011?

While the 596K profits before tax are excellent does it mean the club would have made a loss without the GF & CC income?

With so many SL clubs in poor financial health, the loss of income from SL's major sponsor is of concern. There needs to be some serious thought to a restructure of SL to turnaround the decline in crowds and entertainment value.

It's never become clear but I would have expected that to all have been recognised when it was agreed - so earlier than 2010 (2008 IIRC).

Impossible to say whether they over or underprovided but either way the results over a two year period are still very good given they take the HMRC into account. The 2011 figures are also affected by donations to the Leeds Rugby Foundation (£120k, 2010 £nil), a return of the mysterious management charges payable to Leeds RUFC (£136k, 2010 £nil) and ongoing management charges payable up to the Caddick group of £55k (2010 £55k).

Although there is still an intention to progress with it my guess is that a debate was had with the auditors as to whether it would be appropriate to capitalise any of the presumably not insiginificant architect's, legal and planning costs associated with the aborted S Stand project. A prudent move given the uncertainty of that (to the public at least) would be to write it off through the P&L rather than capitalise it. However there have been £337k additions to Land & Buildings which I can't immediately pin down so maybe not. Separately, the £750k of additions to Plant and Machinery are presumably primarily the new scoreboard and big screen.

My view in previous years has been that Leeds are break even if they don't get to finals and make profits when they do - which is probably the kind of basis that management budget on. It may now be that the company is profitable at a lower level without success rather than just break even.

This isn't a "normal" kind of business that looks for big, consistent profits as there are non-remunerative costs which the club can ramp up or down to a degree relating to local and junior development and the charitable foundation. Certainly, however, Caddick does not give the impression that he is interested in stumping up cash to fund losses at the Rhinos.

The loss of engage sponsorship money is really quite trivial in the overall scheme of things (about £50k per club a year) and more than offset by the recently-increased TV deal and any sub-sponsorships the Stobart deal permits/facilitates.

I'm not sure how you have decided that crowds are in decline as the facts determinedly suggest otherwise.

It has to be agreed, however, that Leeds are a special case. They are an extreme example of the fact that clubs which own and can exploit their own stadia (or other, similar, facilities) have the potential to perform much better financially than those which rent - even when renting is on favourable terms.

I note that Leeds include this year £106k of "Development land" in stock so it may be that the next stage in the business plan is to diversify away from the current reliance on that risky RL market and move into property development

I understand there is some knowledge of this sector on the board.