BII accounts show membership fall but promise 'exciting' year ahead

Tim Hulme, who became chief executive a year ago, will unveil the organisation's manifesto at its annual general meeting on Tuesday.

But accounts published this week indicate the BII will be focussing on six key areas of change.

The figures also show membership fell by the same rate in 2013 - 12% - as in 2012, although it turned around a loss to report a pre-exceptional surplus of £60,000 in the period, saying that as a business the BII performed better than in previous years.

The BII saw membership decline from 10,432 to 9,318, although net losses were less than in the previous year. In total 1,994 members were recruited in the year and 3,108 were lost.

Membership income fell by just over 2% to £832,118 and efficiency savings saw expenditure fall by 14% to £785,049.

Deficit​

The BII incurred a deficit of £154,603 in 2013 (2012: 86,048). However, the figure for 2013 included a non-recurring cost of £215,357 including redundancy payments totalling £55,640. “Due to good working capital management, cash resources decreased by only £87,167 in the year. With most if not all non-core costs stripped out during 2013 the budget for 2014 has been conservatively set at a modest surplus.”

It added: “Despite 2013 being another difficult year for the licensed retail industry, and therefore for BII members, the BII as a business performed better than in previous years. With the economy only just starting to recover, it is anticipated that disposable incomes and discretionary spending will continue to come under pressure for at least another year, although there are more positive signs of growth within the pub sector so far for 2014.”

The BII said: “The BII has an exciting year planned for 2014 beginning with a re-launch of the BII brand and corporate image at its 2014 AGM and Annual Lunch in May. This will include a new portfolio of best in class membership benefits, which will be used to market the organisation to the wider sector and help grow membership according to set targets.” From this month its magazine BII Business is being published jointly with the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, “delivering significant cost savings to BII and enabling a much wider circulation to help boost the membership drive”.

Upgrade​

The organisation added: “A full systems upgrade is also underway including a new website to coincide with the re-launch, a new CRM system and a new eAssessment package, to help underpin the leaner and more agile management structure and improve efficiency.

“A new constitution has been approved by council for ratification at the AGM in May, which will see a leaner and more responsive decision-making process enabled by a new council structure and the introduction of three specialist advisory groups.” The group said a strategy is being developed to “grow and strengthen” the qualification portfolio under BIIAB after a full review, with new launches “into areas where the BII can take market share”.“Having performed better financially in 2013 than in previous years, the executive board have now been tasked with ensuring growth within the business with clear KPIs and financial targets being agreed for all departments.”

The Pre-entry Awareness Training (PEAT) has been “updated and improved for re-launch in 2014” in consultation with the industry. The group said planning permission was recently granted to convert the first and second floors of its Camberley head quarters into flats. “The cash released will enable BII to seek new investment opportunities.” Income from the delivery of qualifications fell again, from £2.2m to £1.8m, with the BII citing the “poor financial climate and continued pressure on market share and pricing”. “Costs also fell but these could not be reduced commensurately.” Income from the sale of handbooks also fell but with “good cost control” the contribution from these increased. The new growth strategy “will seek to address these issues”. The BIIAB issued c94,000 qualifications, down from c105,000 in 2012.

The BII's six objectives to drive change will be discussed at Tuesday's AGM. They are: Membership; BIIAB, policy, leadership and influence; staff; system preferences and finance and governance.