Bad weather results in deficit for A&P Association

23 March 2016

Bad weather results in deficit for A&P Association

The Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association have released their Annual Report announcing results for the financial year ending 31 December 2015.

The2015 Canterbury A&P Show, hosted by the Canterbury A&P Association attracted 6686 livestock, equestrian and feature competition entries – on par with the 2014 event despite a tough year for the agricultural industry. The Trade Exhibition section continued to grow, experiencing its most successful year in the history of the Show.

Poor weather on the Wednesday and Thursday of the 153rd Canterbury A&P Show resulted in an attendance drop of about 10% on 2014. Despite fewer than usual visitor numbers, the Show still attracted around 93,000 visitors during the three day event. Due to the drop in attendance, the Canterbury A&P Association’s 2015 financial performance resulted in a deficit of $8,151 after depreciation.

Canterbury A&P Association Chairman Ben Tothill said that while the loss was disappointing it was manageable.

“Due to the continued support of the Christchurch City Council, the rural community and people of Christchurch, the loss was small enough to be absorbed by the Association’s rainy day fund.”

Event Director Geoff Bone said that outdoor events required long term planning to manage the effect of adverse weather.

“The reality of our event is that we’re at the mercy of the weather on occasion. Thankfully years of hard work by our volunteers and staff along with a conservative management model means that we’re able to cope with these sorts of losses and still be able to invest in improving the Show experience for our visitors and competitors every year.

“Last year we put resource into delivering an amazing Royal A&P Equestrian event, a bigger and better Mike Greer Homes City Farmyard, new seating in the woodchopping arena and introducing the Endurocross event which attracted 50 top riders from across Australasia – a great new addition to our diverse Show. We managed to do all of this while making sure our costs only grew in line with inflation. We’re already looking forward to the next Show and have lots of great additions and improvements planned for 2016.”

The Annual General Meeting of the Canterbury A&P Association will be held Wednesday 30 March at 3pm in the Gloaming Room at Riccarton Park Racecourse. All members of the Association are invited to attend. The Annual Report is available online at www.theshow.co.nz.

The 154th Canterbury A&P Show will be held at ASB Agricultural Park Wednesday 9 to Friday 11 November 2016.

-ENDS-

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