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Derby County record loss as Rams publish accounts and David Clowes investment laid bare
Derby County posted a loss of £14.2m as David Clowes' investment was laid bare once again after the club published its latest set of accounts.
The figures cover the period up to June 2024, the season in which the club won promotion and the second year of Clowes' reign after rescuing Derby from administration in July 2022. The £14.2m loss, an increase of £3.5m from last year's figure of £10.6m, includes a number of one-off exceptional costs such as player bonuses and contractual clauses following promotion back to the Championship.
They amounted to £1.2m, while the loss also includes £4.6m of profit from the sales of Max Bird, Jason Knight, and Krystian Bielik and sell-on clauses for Omari Kellyman and Morgan Whittaker.
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However, Derby are still owed money by Bristol City for Jason Knight, while the club will also receive another sum from the Robins should Bird trigger a contractual clause based on appearances. Birmingham also owe a small figure for Bielik, which is not yet due.
Derby also reported a revenue drop from £20.4m to £19.4m, which was influenced by poor cup runs as the club exited both the FA Cup and League Cup at the first round stage. On top of that, Derby did not have a parachute payment as they did in the first year after relegation from the Championship which was in excess of £800,000. Season tickets sales also increased with 20,880 sold compared to the 20,603 bought in 2023.
The club has also revealed that an independent valuation of Moor Farm took place in May which found there was a significant uplift of its value. The directors requested it be valued again through an exercise to determine its price at the time of Clowes' purchase of the club in July 2022.
The increased valuation figure of Moor Farm has impacted the previous impairment of goodwill announced in last year's accounts which was £19.7m Goodwill is calculated by taking a business's purchase price and subtracting the difference between its fair market value and liabilities. Clowes effectively paid £33m to buy Derby when last year's accounts stated it only had £13.1m worth of assets at the time of purchase.
However, Moor Farm's valuation has increased by £13.9m which has prompted a change to the goodwill impairment charge, which now stands at £9.3m. This means Clowes' purchase of the club, which was over the odds at the time, effectively made his deal better value.
The club has stressed that it is a fair value accounting adjustment and has no impact on the operational trading results from the previous year. Neither does it impact the club's cash position or compliance with the Football League in relation to profit and sustainability.
Derby's first-team wage bill, meanwhile, was up from £7.3m in the 2022/23 season to £10.2m, which also includes bonuses and contract clauses. The club's total salaries amounted to £22m, up from last year's total of £17.2m. However, there was a significant increase in non-playing staff relating to recruitment and the academy, which also includes stewards, catering staff, players, and senior management.
As part of Clowes' plan to rebuild the club, non-playing staff climbed from 177 to 201 while playing staff rose from 59 to 63. Clowes' commitment to the club, however, has been laid bare in what he has spent in the last year. In last year's set of accounts, £36m was owed to Clowes Developments, but that figure has risen by more than £10m. The amount of money that is owed on the balance sheets stands close to £48m.
What is not included in the accounts are the transfers of Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, Kenzo Goudmijn and Ebou Adams. Figures attached to those deals amount to £2.9m. Neither is the sell-on money that Derby were due from Liam Delap's move from Manchester City to Ipswich. All those deals took place after June 30.
