Shelter is carrying out a “detailed review” of its charity shops, which may lead to some store closures, after its retail operation made a loss of £100,000.
The charity’s annual accounts for 2013/14 reveal that the income from charity shops, which are managed by its trading subsidiary Shelter Trading Limited, was £10.9m but the costs were £11m.
Its accounts show that costs had increased because of “a significant programme of shop openings the previous year” and that the loss was down to “difficult trading conditions and “stock supply”.
It is the second year running that the retail operation has made a loss; in 2012/13 the net loss was £389,000. The charity currently has 115 shops and has opened 20 shops since 2010.
Chris Coe, director of Shelter’s trading arm said that “a small number of underperforming locations” were to blame.
“We are currently undertaking a detailed review of our shops chain to see how we can improve our results” he said. “This is focused on developing our best performing shops, in particular through encouraging direct stock donation to our stores and driving up the use of gift aid."
He added that: “We are also identifying measures to address those locations which are proving unprofitable, which may include closing some stores.”
Shelter has not participated Charity Finance magazine’s Charity Shops Survey since 2012 when it was ranked 16th out of 74 shop chains in terms of income. Then it had a profit of £494,000, and 106 shops. But its profit per shop per week was just £96, which was the second lowest.
The previous year, when it had 97 shops, its overall profit was £947,000 and the profit per week per shop was £192.
Face-to-face agency going well
The annual accounts also reveal that Shelter also set up its own face-to-face fundraising agency in 2013 which made a net profit of £291,000.
In 2013/14 the charity’s total income was £57.5m, which was an increase of £4m on the previous year. Its total expenditure was £59.8m.
The chief executive, Campbell Robb is paid a salary of £128,000 and divisional directors are paid £84,660. Eight people at the organisation earn more than £60,000.
