Aberdeen Performing Arts says it will “weather the storm” after a loss-making financial year.
People are being urged to continue their support of its venues as the group continues its recovery from the Covid-19 impact.
A total of 713 performances took place at His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall and the Lemon Tree throughout 2022/23 attended by more than 350,000 audiences.
Income for the charity rose to £13.1 million for the year ending March 31 2023, up from £10.1m in 2022.
However, costs also rose dramatically, to £13.4m, leading to an overall £360,000 deficit.
What’s behind Aberdeen Performing Arts loss?
Matt Godfrey APA finance and commercial director said utilities, bills and cost-of-living pressures have all played their part.
But he said he is confident this years programme will entice audiences and help “weather the storm”.
He said: “We continue to see challenge around essentially inflationary pressure. Our utilities, bills and cost-of-living position has obviously impacted us.
“But again with having the programme there and seeing the support we are getting through our audiences it can balance as we go into a challenging year and allow us to weather the storm.”
He said last year the venues had a “really good varied and vibrant programme”.
“We had a successful pantomime season and had the Scottish premiere of Life of Pi at His Majesty’s as well,” he added.
“We’ve had some good positives in there around the programme.
‘Starting a rebuild’
Works last year included the completed £750,000 renovation works at His Majesty’s Theatre including the creation of the new foyer space and The Terrace Cafe and Bar.
Mr Godfrey believes the impact of Covid-19 played a big part in the recent financial figures.
He said: “There is some challenge in there, in the respect we are comparing against the year ending March 2022 where our venues were closed essentially for about four to five months with Covid restrictions and the Omicron closure again.
“Although it’s showing a massive upside in terms of income, actually all we’re doing is starting a rebuild back to a normal trading position.
“It’s positive in the respect we’ve reopened our doors and seeing people return to our venues. However, we are not seeing that at the same level as we would’ve pre pandemic.
“There’s still a bit of growth in there but it’s positive from the respect we are seeing people want to come back and engage with us and visit our venues which is what we are after.”
Lower donations play a part
One area which took a big hit was the amount of donations and legacies which saw figures drop from £5m in 2022 to £1.9m in 2023.
Mr Godfrey said: “That’s Covid related. In the year ending March 2022 we were in receipt of a number of pandemic related funding opportunities through Scottish Government and through city council and other funding bodies which tailed off at the end of 2023.”
Programme highlights in 2022/23 included the Scottish premiere of West End musical The Book of Mormon and the first performance in Scotland of Grammy Award winning musician Angelique Kidjo.
There were five festivals with crime fiction Granite Noir the best attended with 15,000 audiences across 57 events.