http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?hlid=357715 Chelsea business plan on target Friday, Jan 27, 2006 Chelsea are on course to achieve the business plan by breaking even in 2009/10, said chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Peter Kenyon at the announcement of the club's accounts this morning, Friday. The accounts were for the year from July 1st 2004 - June 30th 2005, the second year of Roman Abramovich. Chairman Buck emphasised: "The very beginning of the business plan was that Chelsea Football Club should aspire to be successful on the pitch." That's what stimulated the transfer investment of ￡175m in Mr Abramovich's first year, ￡101m in the year reported, and is currently at ￡57m for this year. "We want to reduce significant investment ahead, so in the short-term our investment focuses on the Academy, " added Buck. "We want to reduce salaries as a percentage of turnover. There's two ways of doing that, reducing salaries or increasing turnover. If you assume players' salaries stay where they are, you have to build revenues by 30 per cent." The markets of North America and Asia, particularly China, are where this expansion is targeted. Chief executive Kenyon said: "Our overall target is to get them (salaries) down to 55 per cent of our turnover." Part of the business plan is to concentrate on the core business of being a football club. That means outsourcing those businesses which are not part of our core business, for example catering and the hotels. Discussions are continuing on potential partners for our hotels. "If we were starting from scratch we wouldn't be building two hotels, we wouldn't be building a sports club, we wouldn't be running a travel business," said Buck. Merchandising turnover dropped by ￡1.1m in the reported year, but this was due to outsourcing the mail order and internet sales. Overall the merchandising was very strong with profits increasing by ￡300,000 to ￡2.1m. Membership levels have grown from 41,000 to nearly 69,000. Buck admitted: "The five year plan is aggressive and if we didn't meet it we wouldn't be surprised. We want to meet it and we think we can, but if we don't we go on. Mr Abramovich is here for the long haul." Roman Abramovich, he said, was at ease with the situation. "We had a session with Mr Abramovich about the annual results and he's pleased with the way that the business is progressing and is progressing in line with the business plan." He estimated that the owner had invested approximately ￡380m into the club on top of the ￡60m he paid for the shares. This, he said, contrasts markedly with how much it cost to buy Manchester United. Kenyon summed it up by saying: "We've taken the realistic view for the long-term health of Chelsea. The money invested in Chelsea is, in the main,all going back into football." The value of those transfer investments will be written off year by year in relation to the players' contracts, which means that the losses will continue for a few years and then decrease substantially. Assuming the Academy is a success, replacements should not be such a major issue. The age of the squad is important too as it is an average of 25 years old. The issue of increasing capacity at Stamford Bridge, or of moving, came up in detail. Kenyon said: "We've always said if we can find a way of extending the capacity at Stamford Bridge that will be our first option. We've not yet completed or exhausted that option. But I've said all along that is a challenge. There is no desire to move from here, but if that's not the case (achieving expansion) we will have to look at options. But I would like to make clear no decision has been taken yet over whether expansion at Stamford Bridge is possible or not, and therefore talk about other grounds is speculation. "We've also got to look at trends in football, and while we have had a sell-out season and hope to continue to do that, with football on television and staggered kick-off times, that can have an effect on capacity. We would like to get our capacity up to 55,000." Bruce Buck and Peter Kenyon have both done exclusive interviews for Chelsea TV this evening. by Neil Barnett -- ╔══╗╔╗╔╗╔══╗╔╗ ╔══╗╔══╗╔══╗ ║╔═╝║╚╝║║╔═╝║║ ║╔═╝║╔═╝║╔╗║ ║║ ║╔╗║║╔═╝║║ ╚═╗║║╔═╝║╚╝║ ║╚═╗║║║║║╚═╗║╚═╗╔═╝║║╚═╗║╔╗║ ╚══╝╚╝╚╝╚══╝╚══╝╚══╝╚══╝╚╝╚╝ --

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