I also introduce from left to right, my fellow directors, Gray Smith and Sean Jones.

Transcription

1 CHELSEA PITCH OWNERS AGM 25/1/19 CHAIRMANS STATEMENT Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for attending the Annual General Meeting of CPO. There are many familiar faces and a few new ones. A warm welcome to you all of you, especially those attending a meeting for the first time. First apologies from my colleagues, Sean Jones has a late listing in the High Court, gray Smith is attending to a family matter, and Steve Frankham who cannot be here today as he is abroad. Whilst this is unfortunate, I hope that we will be able to answer any of the questions you may have about CPO. May I welcome to the stage Ginette Gower, who was appointed as Director during the last financial year in late Spring. She brings with her a wealth of experience at board as well as operational level, and her hard work is already paying off in relation to our events. More of that later on. I also introduce from left to right, my fellow directors, Gray Smith and Sean Jones. The statement this morning is split into the following sections: The first will be about the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge. When we met last year, we had an injunction for a matter of right of light had not been settled. That matter was concluded shortly after that meeting, and we were all looking forward to moving forward with discussions with the club about the redevelopment of the ground. As you are all aware, this matter has been put on hold by the owner, and it remains the case to this day.

2 We have not taken our discussions with the club any further, so there is nothing of substance to report about our lease, the loan, or indeed any other initiative that may have been in the offing a year ago. As and until the situation regarding the matter of the ground becomes clearer, we will be continuing to take CPO forward by selling shares in accordance with the plans I am about to outline to you. Whilst of course there is some disappointment that the hard work to date is in limbo, if and we hope when, the owner decides to restart, then CPO will be ready to engage with the process fully. It is to administrative matters that I now turn. As advised to the AGM last year we undertook a full recruitment exercise to appoint a new director for the company, and received 40 or so expressions of interest. These were sifted in accordance with good practice, and we interviewed 4 candidates. We were and are delighted to have Ginette Gower as a director, and she has agreed to undertake a part time executive role with us taking over half the role that I had previously done for the company, and concentrating on events and marketing. As part of our preparation for discussing the future of CPO and the ground, we undertook to review the way the business is run. As too many of you are aware, all of us are getting older and the challenges of this company are outlined in the statements that have been approved unanimously by the board and then published on our website. I will come onto the business plan in more detail later. At last years AGM we passed a resolution to lower the base, or scrip value of any new share from 100 to 25. This was always as a part of our plan to widen the inclusivity of our share ownership. One of the main aims of these new inclusive costs, was to sell the shares both online and in the megastore, following our agreement to do so after the granting of permission

3 to Nike to take a sub-lease over part of our freehold. The megastore, receives 250,000 visitors per year, and the plans are to sell these at the point where visitors enter the store. However I have to report that the reason that this is not yet operational, is due to legal difficulties. Gray Smith has been looking long and hard into ways around this, and I am sure will be able to give greater detail if you wish to explore this during the question session shortly. For the avoidance of doubt, this question has nothing to do with the club. When you come to vote a bit later on, if you have not done so, we are asking you to increase the amount of shares we can issue to 200,000 per year. In the past we have gotten no where near this figure, but if you take just a small percentage of visitors, who might buy a share, you can see that we are being prudent in our hopes that this may be the case in due course. In previous years shareholders have, rightly, been concerned to ensure that blocs of shares are not being built up by individuals or groups of individuals. Currently we have not sold more than 4 shares (Value: 100) at any one time for many months. Anyone applying to purchase more than 10 shares at any one time, will be closely scrutinised. If we did not do this, then we would have to call a special meeting to undertake any more sales. The expense of calling a meeting such as this, purely to request a further extension would not be financially prudent for the company, and would possibly mean losing potential shareholders in the meantime. Or newest director Ginette has taken on the role of organising events and of marketing. The overall brief as outlined in our business plan is to ensure that we have activities and a general approach to our commercial events that back up and support the goals of a more inclusive share ownership. As part of the redefinition of CPO, Ginette was key to the rebranding that took place last summer., working with the marketing team at the Club to bring our brand and logo in line with the new Club fonts and designs. The new certificates, forms and indeed the

4 look of all CPO materials is cleaner, sharper and in line with the redefinition of the other Chelsea materials carried out by the club. which we believe is another step forward. In addition Ginette managed our annual tournament on the pitch, which incidentally will be running again this year. As ever it was a great success enjoyed by all those who took part and indeed were watching. She is also responsible for our social media and communications to shareholders. Ginette has also project managed a series of testimonial videos which will be launched shortly. This has been done in conjunction with Jamie Horton, Kings Road Creative, a fan and shareholder. Jamie is here today to record additional testimonials with anyone who would like to take part at the end of the meeting. A video has also been produced by Chelsea TV to promote CPO before the pitch share presentations. This was also shown at the Annual Lunch in November. Latterly, the board asked her to organise an evening at Under the Bridge. The aim was to aim this at a more inclusive rather than exclusive audience, with tickets priced at just over 30. Unfortunately we got our timing wrong despite good support from the club, we had to cancel this, and we have to hold our hands up and say that this was one event that did not succeed. In order to try and avoid this in future, Ginette will be leading a survey into events that will attract existing and new shareholders alike, and will be assembling a team to deliver this for CPO. I am sure she will want to discuss more ideas today, and I look forward to hearing suggestions and comments later in the meeting. I turn to the accounts: The fact is that the accounts are what company managers the world over would euphemistically call disappointing. Down right poor would be my take on it. We need to sell more shares, hold more events, and make enough to cover our costs so that the value of the company, YOUR company grows rather than reduces. Of course this pales alongside the revaluation of our primary asset, the ground, which has reduced in value by some 200,000 this year. The reasons for this, is comparison

5 to an oversupplied local property market, as well as a general reduction in property prices in London, combined with the uncertainties of life generally, is well out of our control. The fact is that it does not impact on whether we will be operationally profitable, or indeed on our cashflow, so in that respect, it is not important, however it does as referred to above, mean that as a company we are worth less than we were. I am confident that in due course that the ground will be revalued upwards, and at that point, the opposite will be the case. Those with an accounting bias might also have picked up on a rather higher than usual debtor and creditor figures. This is almost entirely due to a legal bill to do with the Right of Light matter that fell due in last year, but has been settled in the current year. The business plan has also taken the opportunity to review of the company s financial activities. We are mindful that currently we operate as a non profit (or in truth loss making) company and that our purpose is not that which drives most companies to make as much as possible. The work that I and Ginette do, is I assure you at rates that would have the DSS on our backs if compared publicly to the national minimum wage, we operate without overheads such as property, and take advantage of the kind offices of Steve Frankham for a postal address. The company aspires to become more professional and to move away from the mainly volunteer mode of operation. It is the first time for some years that we have done this exercise, and the key indicators that we have set are in your annual report. Key to this, is and I make no apology for repeating this, is inclusivity. CPO needs to ensure the future, so that those of us who remembered why we celebrated and thanked Ken Bates for setting up CPO in the first place, are not forgotten, and that CPO be-

6 comes and thrives as a key part of being a Chelsea supporter long after we have gone to the Shed in the Sky. My colleagues would this opportunity to answer questions on what we are planning in the future, and how you can get involved. I thank not only you for turning up, but many of you for your more general support of CPO and indeed encouragement to me personally as well. We can only succeed with the assistance of the club, and with the assistance of many of the staff here, some of whom are indeed shareholders in a private capacity, and we thank them sincerely. The way in which we are trying to do this is to be inclusive. Not to run events that are there just to make money, but events that are there to further enhance the support for our club. That is the challenge and I and the board, hope you will vote with the recommendations of your board to accept resolution 8, and all of the other resolutions in front of you today, We look forward to answering any questions and queries you may have.

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