19
WWT Report and Financial Statements 2012/13
Trading operations
The majority of our income from activities for generating
funds comes from our trading subsidiary, Wildfowl &
Wetlands Trust (Trading) Ltd (known as WWT Trading),
which operates shops and restaurants at the wetland
centres and, at the larger centres, provides corporate and
private functions. Total visitation decreased 10% compared
with 2011/12 and this has directly impacted trading sales.
The costs of goods sold include the costs of the products
sold in the wetland centre shops, the restaurants’ food, the
staff costs from both operations as well as management,
finance, human resources and IT support. Overall, there
was a slight increase in these costs as a percentage
of trading turnover compared with last year due to the
pressure on trading sales from the fall in admissions.
Overall the company donated £33k to the charity (note 31).
Charitable activities
There was a small increase in expenditure on charitable
activities in 2012/13 compared with the previous year.
Grants and contract income received in the year totalled
£2.3m. Of this, £1.5m was raised by the charity and £0.8m
through the work of WWT Consulting.
The charity received £0.7m to help fund developments and
activities at the wetland centres, such as the saline lagoon,
borehole and pond zone at Washington, education and
reserve work at Caerlaverock and protection against invasive
species at our centre reserves.
Capital grants are shown within the Statement of Financial
Activities on pages 28 & 29 in the year in which they
become due. However, accounting regulations require the
expenditure to be capitalised within the balance sheet and
expensed as depreciation over several years as the assets
are used, rather than shown as expenditure in the year in
which the projects are carried out. This causes a recorded
surplus of restricted funds in years where new capital
funding is received, even though the grants have been spent
in full, and deficits in years where capital funding is low.
Excluding such capital investment, expenditure on
our centres totalled £6.2m, representing 47% of total
charitable expenditure (2011/12: 47%). The cost of
running the nine wetland centres covers the staffing and
other costs of managing our grounds, our wildlife reserves
and the visitor infrastructure such as hides, footpaths and
the visitor centre buildings themselves.
WWT has grown its level of spend on wetland nature
conservation. Excluding WWT Consulting work, £2.4m
was spent in the year. Many generous funders provide
grants towards these programmes, helping to fund
species conservation programmes both in the UK and
overseas, including urgent work to save the Madagascar
pochard and spoon-billed sandpiper, conservation of the
red-breasted goose in Bulgaria and re-introduction of
the common crane in the UK. Defra also continued to
contract WWT’s expertise for avian influenza surveillance
work taking place across the UK, and species monitoring
contracts were carried out for JNCC, Scottish Natural
Heritage and DECC.
The wetland conservation programmes received grants for
the continuation of projects in Cambodia (for conservation
of wetland areas that support significant numbers of sarus
crane) and in the UK for the SuDS for Schools project –
building Sustainable Drainage Systems in school grounds
within the Pymmes Brook Catchment.
£1.2m was spent on learning programmes, excluding
WWT Consulting’s work. These include formal and non-
formal learning programmes at WWT centres and beyond,
supported by a range of generous funders.
WWT Consulting is the UK’s leading specialist wetland
consultancy. A subsidiary of the charity, the company
provides a broad range of wetland-related consultancy
services including species surveys, habitat creation,
restoration, management and visitor centre design
services to clients worldwide. All its taxable profits
are donated to the charity, and £21k was donated at
Photo: © WWT
Wetland
Centres
2012/13 2011/12
Charitable Expenditure
(excluding new capital investment)
£0
£1,000.000
£2,000.000
£3,000.000
£4,000.000
£5,000.000
£6,000.000
£7,000.000
Wetland nature
conservation
Learning about
wetlands
Visitor services
& marketing
membership
services
