Hibs clock up sixth consecutive year of profit

Hibs have continued to buck the trend of growing debt in Scottish football by today revealing they've clocked up a sixth successive year in the black.

Although the latest profit of 100,000 is far more modest than in previous years, chairman Rod Petrie nevertheless described it as "a truly outstanding achievement within football, let alone football within Scotland."

And, Petrie claimed, the fact that the Easter Road club's accounts to the end of their financial year on 31 July were approved by the directors just 27 days later illustrated Hibs were well run and their finances robust, making them the envy of many of their rivals.

While admitting that "profit" can be seen by some as a dirty word, Petrie insisted: "Being in profit means the club is self sufficient and in control of its own destiny - it also means any surplus income is retained within the club and reinvested for the future."

Petrie acknowledged, however, that the past year had been a challenging one, a combination of the difficult conditions for supporters and sponsors, the reduction in season-ticket prices (rolled back to 2007 levels) and the closure of the East Terracing in February to make way for the new stand resulting in turnover dropping eight per cent to 7.1 million.

Although the 12 months actually saw the club make an operating loss, some 2.3?m pulled in through the sale of former skipper Rob Jones and the operation of "sell on clauses" and other "contingent events" arising from the transfer of players in previous years, including Steven Fletcher's move to Burnley and subsequent switch to Wolves resulted in another bottom line profit.

Against that background, Hibs also built, on budget and a year ahead of schedule, the new 6400-seater East Stand, making, according to Petrie, Easter Road the largest fully enclosed, all-seated, UEFA compliant football stadium in Scotland outside Glasgow.

And in a letter to shareholders which accompanied their copy of the accounts which were dropping through letter boxes today, Petrie revealed boss John Hughes had also enjoyed the benefit of a further increase in his budget.

He said: "At a time when many football clubs were reducing playing budgets, the board sought to support our new manager and sanctioned a further increase in staff costs from 4.7?m to 4.8?m in the year."

Subsequently the "wages to turnover ratio" increased to 68 per cent, a figure which Petrie insisted had to be brought back below 60 per cent.