Registered number:
ASSOCIATION LIMITED
STRATEGIC REPORT, DIRECTORS' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
COMPANY INFORMATION
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CONTENTS
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STRATEGIC REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
The directors present their strategic report together with the audited financial statements for the year ended 30
June 2024.
Cribbs is one of the top performing shopping centres in the UK with an affluent shopper drawn from across the South-West and beyond. It ranks above major centres such as Lakeside and Metrocentre, despite their larger floorspace, due to the quality of the retail offer and strong alignment to the affluent catchment.
The centre has performed relatively well against the current cost-of-living crisis, delivering retail tension and strong footfall. Year to date the centre is tracking +3.41% in sales against 2023 and +3% in footfall. This outperforms the Springboard UK footfall benchmark of -1.6%. The centre benefits from an exceptionally high occupancy rate with no ongoing voids. 2024 has seen significant investment from existing brands with major refurbishments from Boots, M&S and H&M amongst others. A significant number of the centre’s tenants perform within the top 5 of their businesses and en-gagement by brand across Cribbs’ core retailers is consistent and shows stability within the asset.
Inflation in the UK has been tamed more quickly than forecast by the Bank of England, with the price of goods now rising at 1.7% per year – below the BoE’s target of 2%. This leads financial experts such as Deloitte to forecast a continued growth in spending throughout 2025. However, The Bank of England interest rate is still high at 5%, meaning the pressure of mortgage rates will continue to weigh heavily on consumers in the coming months. While visitors’ pockets are increasingly squeezed, it is important to maintain interest and engagement to remain competitive, leverage the affluent core shoppers and offer experiential shopping services unique to Cribbs to maintain their loyalty.
The ‘Student Life’ shopper group are becoming increasingly squeezed, with lower proportions of disposable income influencing their purchasing power. However, they are a trend driven group, and despite lower levels of disposable income, they will be interested in frequently trending brands such as Mango and H Beauty. Executive Wealth boast strong engagement with Cribbs Causeway, particularly with their above average value. They are affluent and therefore less economically squeezed than other core Acorn groups, despite this they are spending marginally less YoY; maintaining their loyalty and defending their visitor numbers will be a key focus for the coming year.
Trends & Factors
The cost-of-living crisis has seen a move away from the luxury brands that came to the fore in the wake of Covid. The centre must ensure it mitigates against the risk of creating voids through the loss of these brands, should this trend sustain.
Since 2023, clothing turnover has grown, and the headroom has been reduced. However, there is further work to do in closing this category gap, which is currently the most significant within the centre’s target Executive Wealth and Mature Money shopper groups. Leasing must focus on providing shoppers with the current, trending fashion brands that these customers desire. Headroom in Wales has remained broadly static across all the last year, and while it is positive to see a reduction within Executive Wealth, efforts will be made to continue this momentum and fur-ther decrease headroom. Executive Wealth and Mature Money present the largest opportunity. Year one of the Cribbs Loyalty Scheme has provided access to a substantial new amount of cus-tomer data, which has now been translated in to a bespoke, targeted CRM platform for the coming year.
Page 1
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STRATEGIC REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
Financial risk is the risk that the Company is unable to deliver sustainable performance, generate sustainable
profits and maintain adequate capital and liquidity to meet customers' and stakeholders' requirements. Financial risk encompasses credit, liquidity and market risk. Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Company if a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument fails to meet its contractual obligations. ln order to help ensure the profitability and solvency of the Company, the Company actively manages the exposure to credit risk on its balance sheet. Liquidity risk is the risk that the Company, although solvent, does not have the available financial resources to enable it to meet its contractual obligations as they fall due, or that the Company can secure such resources only at excessive cost. The Company expects to hold sufficient capital and liquidity to ensure the continuity of its business under normal and stressed conditions. Market risk is the risk that changes in market prices, such as property asset prices, foreign exchange rates and interest rates will affect the Company's income or the value of its holdings of financial instruments. The Company's revenues are directly exposed to the level of, and movement in, real estate markets. A significant proportion of the Company's cost base is fixed and the board accepts that the Company's revenues and profits are exposed to short-term market fluctuations.
Operational risk is the risk of loss or unintended gain arising from inadequate or failed internal processes and
systems, from failures by personnel or from external events. All areas of the Company are exposed to operational risk through the nature of their day-to-day operations. Any control absence or failure associated with processes, people, systems or any external events can result in negative or unfavourable consequences to the Company.
This report was approved by the board and signed on its behalf.
Page 2
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2024.
The directors are responsible for preparing the Strategic Report, the Directors' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
∙select suitable accounting policies for the Company's financial statements and then apply them consistently;
∙make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
∙state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
∙prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business.
The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The directors who served during the year were:
Page 3
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The auditors, Wellers, will be proposed for reappointment in accordance with section 485 of the Companies Act 2006.
In preparing this report, the directors have taken advantage of the small companies exemptions provided by section 415A of the Companies Act 2006.
This report was approved by the board and signed on its behalf.
Page 4
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We have audited the financial statements of Cribbs Causeway Merchants Association Limited (the 'Company') for the year ended 30 June 2024, which comprise the Statement of Income and Retained Earnings, the Balance Sheet and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our Auditors' Report thereon. The directors are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Page 5
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
∙the information given in the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
∙the Strategic Report and the Directors' Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Strategic Report or the Directors' Report.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditors' Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Discussions with and enquiries of management and those charged with governance were held with a view to identifying those laws and regulations that could be expected to have a material impact on the financial statements. We also evaluated the commercial objectives of the Company and assessed managements incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of results. During the engagement team briefing, the outcomes of these discussions and enquiries were shared with the team, as well as consideration as to where and how fraud may occur in the entity. Those laws and regulations considered to have a direct effect on the financial statements include UK financial reporting standards, Company Law, Tax legislation and distributable profits legislation. Audit procedures undertaken in response to the potential risks relating to irregularities (which include fraud and
Page 6
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
non-compliance with laws and regulations) comprised of: enquiries of management and those charged with governance as to whether the entity complies with such laws and regulations; enquiries with the same concerning any actual or potential litigation or claims; inspection of relevant legal expenses for evidence of disputes or litigation; testing the appropriateness of journal entries; and the performance of analytical review to identify unexpected movements in account balances and transactions which may be indicative of fraud.
No instances of material non-compliance were identified. However, the likelihood of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is limited by the inherent difficulty in detecting irregularities, the effectiveness of the entity’s controls, and the nature, timing and extent of the audit procedures performed. Irregularities that result from fraud might be inherently more difficult to detect than irregularities that result from error. As explained above, there is an unavoidable risk that material misstatements may not be detected, even though the audit has been planned and performed in accordance with ISAs (UK).
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditors' Report.
This report is made solely to the Company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditors' Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
for and on behalf of
Accountants
Statutory Auditors
1 Vincent Square
SW1P 2PN
Page 7
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND RETAINED EARNINGS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2024
Page 8
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 30 JUNE 2024
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the board and were signed on its behalf by:
The notes on pages 10 to 13 form part of these financial statements.
Page 9
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cribbs Causeway Merchants Association Limited is a company limited by guarantee that is incorporated in England and Wales. Its principle activities are in real estate and advertising with its registered office at Management Offices, The Mall At Cribbs Causeway, Bristol, BS34 5DG.
2.Accounting policies
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention unless otherwise specified within these accounting policies and in accordance with FRS 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland' and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. The disclosure requirements of Section 1A of FRS 102 have been applied other than where additional disclosure is required to show a true and fair view.
The following principal accounting policies have been applied:
The Company has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 “Basic Financial Instruments” of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Basic financial assets
Basic financial assets, which include trade and other debtors, cash and bank balances, are initially measured at their transaction price (adjusted for transaction costs except in the initial measurement of financial assets that are subsequently measured at fair value through profit and loss) and are subsequently carried at their amortised cost using the effective interest method, less any provision for impairment, unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is
Page 10
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest.
Discounting is omitted where the effect of discounting is immaterial. The Company's cash and cash equivalents, trade and most other debtors due with the operating cycle fall into this category of financial instruments.
Analysis of turnover by country of destination:
Page 11
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The company is a private company limited by guarantee and consequently does not have share capital. Each of the members is liable to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.00 towards the assets of the company in the event of liquidation.
Whilst undertaking the audit for the year to 30 June 2024, it was identified that the income figure for the year to 30 June 2023 had been overstated, due to income that did not belong to Cribbs Causeway Merchants Association Limited being recognised in the accounts.
Consequently, income and the respective expenditure were both overstated by £75,494. For the year ended 30 June 2023 the Directors have amended the accounts to remove this income and expenditure, as per IAS 8: Accounting policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors. Additionally, other creditors have been amended to recognise the funds owed to the landlord, as opposed to Cribbs Causeway Merchants Association Limited, at the Balance Sheet date.
Page 12
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Under the terms of the company's arrangements with the M&G Group's main UK banker, the bank has a right of set-off between credit balances and all overdrawn balances of those group companies with similar arrangements.
The immediate parent company is The Prudential Assurance Company Limited, registered in England and Wales. The ultimate parent company is M&G Plc, registered in England and Wales, which is the only parent company which prepares group financial statements, copies of which can be obtained from the Company Secretary, Alan Porter.
Page 13
|