Gloucester Rugby's best year ever

Whether the fans felt it, last season was a record year for Gloucester Rugby as a business, but the club warns dark clouds continue to hover threateningly over everyone in the Gallagher Premiership.

🔒 You’re reading a members’ only edition of The Raikes Journal. We let you have a look at the top of the edition, and maybe give you a taste of the big story that is today’s focus – but that’s all, unless you upgrade to paid. As well as being able to read the second and third editions of the week in full, you will be able to see beyond the paywall that locks all our archive after two weeks, view our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, sposnored by Randall & Payne, and comment on our stories. And you will be helping make sustainable this community interest company dedicated to supporting your community – Gloucestershire. All for just £2.30 per week!

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Dear Readers, 

Good morning. We hope you had a great Easter bank holiday weekend. 

Our story from Thursday last week, a deep dive into Gloucester Brewery courtesy of its managing director Geoff Smith, proved a popular read. The business is on a fascinating journey, and taking so many county organisations and charities with it as it goes. 

And our feature on Monday of that week about a Gloucestershire cafe owner who might have to close her family business after finding she had signed up to an energy contract that automatically renewed her business onto some of the highest rates for the next three years seems also to have touched a nerve. 

We can only hope Ofgem’s pressure on the government to change the rules to provide better protection for companies brings about change. 

Oh, and we’re building up to revealing another of our founding partners tomorrow (the businesses helping make this community interest company possible) with a big interview with its managing partner! 

Please do continue to bear us in mind for your stories and ideas. The best email currently is andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk. Or telephone 07956 926061.

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* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (we’ve already let you know about QuoLux and Gloucestershire College, and more partners will be revealed over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support from all of you is invaluable! For commercial opportunities visit our About page. To get in touch email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

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Why today’s main story? 

It is no surprise that some call Kingsholm Rugby Stadium Gloucester’s second Cathedral. Like Cheltenham Festival – and the town’s other festivals - it creates excitement, brings money into the county and puts Gloucestershire on the map. For some, it represents its beating heart and spirit. 

Martin St Quinton, the club’s owner, once told the editor of Raikes the object every season financially was to break even or close. Too much profit and fans would rightly ask him, he said, why he had not invested more into their club. Which is one of the reasons we have made nothing in our main story today of the loss it has just revealed for its last financial year. 

Having followed the financial fortunes for some years now, it strikes us how well-run Gloucester Rugby continues to be in what recent events at Worcester, Wasps and London Irish prove is a world where no prisoners are taken on or off the pitch. 

When Rishi Sunak popped into Kingsholm in March 2024 Gloucester MP Richard Graham asked the Prime Minster to help find a solution to the ‘crippling’ repayments of loans handed out to Premiership rugby clubs like Gloucester Rugby during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In total £159 million was dished out, but the sport has emerged from the pandemic on unstable footings financially and clubs are seeking deferrals ahead of first repayment date. So far the Government has proved unsympathetic. 

Clubs have pointed out that collectively they deliver an estimated £80 million of tax each year into the national coffers. The Government has pointed out the loss of the three clubs named above cost the tax payer £50 million. 

The Government may well be finding it difficult to be sympathetic when clubs have also just increased the individual salary cap from £5 million to £6.4 million. And it is aware those same clubs are one-third owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which is preparing to float on the Amsterdam stock market valued at £12 billion. 

This is not just sports talk. As you’ll see from our story below, Gloucester Rugby acknowledges how serious the situation is and the impact the collapse of any more clubs could have on the health and security of the very league itself.

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Our chosen charity: Cheltenham Animal Shelter

This is all about Cheltenham Animal Shelter and your chance to take a tour of the much-loved home for many, many animals that a seeking new homes. The charity, which is based in Gardner’s Lane, Cheltenham, rescues and homes hundreds of unwanted and abandoned cats, dogs and small animals every year at a cost of £900,000. It covers that with no Government or Lottery funding. You can take a 30-minute guided tour of the shelter any weekday you wish, subject to booking it by midnight the night before. Should you do so, prepare to not just get a feel for what the charity does, but have your heart melted. Find out more here. 

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Your Raikes’ briefing

🗳️ In February Heath Gunter, the chief executive officer for Cheltenham BID – the organisation that represents businesses in the town centre – announced he would be leaving the role in April. With that day fast approaching his successor has now been named as Francesca Inman, who joins from Bristol BID. Alex Rose, Cheltenham BID chairman, has also revealed this is a crucial time for the organisation, which has invested an estimated £3.9 million into the town since its formation in 2016; it is building up to a ballot in 2026, where town centre businesses vote once again on its future.

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🏉 This just struck us as an opportunity worth spreading the word about. And it gave us the chance to run this joyous image (see above) of Gloucester-Hartpury Womens Rugby Club winning the Allianz Premier 15s title last year with a 34-19 win over Exeter Chiefs at Kingsholm. This story, however, is about a vacancy for a lead physiotherapist at the club on a salary of £36,000. You’ll need to be a passionate chartered physiotherapist with relevant governing body membership and insurance, plus experience with developmental athletes and the ability to educate, advise and motivate individuals. You can find out more here. 

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🧥 ‘Discussions’ continue between Julian Dunkerton and those running the business he created, fashion house Superdry, but it has emerged the Cheltenham entrepreneur will not be making an offer for the company. Dunkerton famously founded the business (then Cult Clothing) on a market stall back in 1985 before taking it public in 2010. After leaving Superdry in 2018 its fortunes floundered and he fought his way back onto the board in 2019 to try and turn things around. Those plans were torpedoed by the Covid-19 pandemic and since then the story has been a battle for financial security. Superdry said on Thursday last week it had reached an agreement to extend a loan facility to aid its plans. Dunkerton still holds a 26 per cent stake in the business. 

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💻 It has been an incredible start to the year for Cheltenham-based technology and digital innovation provider Emerge Digital, which has announced contract wins valued at £200,000. According to the firm the rush to its services has partly been helped by the firms from the region seeking to ‘mature their IT’, embrace AU and fortify their cyber security. Emerge Digital says this is a sure-fire sign that ‘digital transformation’ is moving up the agenda for most businesses in 2024. To read more and find out which Gloucestershire firms it has partnered with visit our Cyber channel.

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Top 100: Gloucester Rugby’s best year ever 

Whether the fans felt it, last season was a record year for Gloucester Rugby as a business, but the club warns dark clouds continue to hover threateningly over everyone in the Gallagher Premiership.

By Andrew Merrell.

It’s perfectly understandable why 2022/23 season will live long in the hearts and minds of Gloucester-Hartpury fans, but why should on earth should Gloucester Rugby Fans be celebrating too? 

A good showing against eventual winners La Rochelle in the Round of 16 in the Heineken European Champions Cup was perhaps the high point in a Gallagher Premiership season of seven wins and 13 losses producing a 10th place finish for the men. 

It proved a stark contrast to the dominant display from the women’s team, crowned league champions after winning the play-off final at Kingsholm against Exeter Chiefs Women in front of a record crowd of almost 10,000 spectators. 

It is form the Gloucester-Hartpury has carried into this season too. 

But here’s why Gloucester Rugby has cause to cheer as well.

“Despite these unforeseen setbacks, the club performed well commercially, achieving a record level of commercial revenue,” said Martin St Quinton, the club’s owner and chairman, writing in the club’s just published annual report.

“The ongoing relationship with principal partner, BiGDUG, continued to go from strength to strength as the partnership entered its third year, whilst club memberships increased by four per cent from the previous season. 

“Conferences and events made a strong return with record levels of revenue reported following the loss of this income during the Coronavirus pandemic.

 “The salary cap remained at the reduced level of £5 million plus credits, as in the previous season, which helped to control the overall salary burden.”

But the annual report goes on to give a stark warning of a serious threat that could have sever consequences for the whole league.