ANNUAL REPORT | PPC102 MARCH 2021

In our most recent Annual Report, Mark Williams, Honorary Treasurer on BPCA's Executive Board, assesses the Association's finances for 2020 and the challenges the pandemic presented.

2020 was challenging for everyone. Our old ways of doing things were reviewed and adapted, ensuring we could all continue to operate in a Covid-safe manner.

We understood that everyone’s trading was affected, and while some reported depressed profits, many reported an ‘okay’ year given the circumstances and, in some cases, better than expected.

There’s obviously been some ‘hardship’ cases, but less than expected and we’ve handled those sympathetically, case-by-case.

Like the majority of much of our membership, BPCA is a small business and has had to adapt to continue its primary function of supporting the membership.

We were able to do this because of a robust reserves policy allowing us to offer, amongst many Covid mitigation measures, the deferred payment plan for subscriptions which many took advantage of.

That decision effectively saw the Association without its primary income stream for six months.

We also used the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough) to protect member interests, the Association and its employees.

I hope you’ll agree that Ian Andrew and his Staff team did a sterling job by continuing to run our Association in a near ‘business as usual’ fashion.

The Staff team did an amazing job pivoting the event and training provision to predominantly an online service; I know many of you benefitted by taking up the various offers.

Member engagement also had to change and while you’ve appreciated the innovative ways we did that, the overwhelming message we heard, and are still hearing, is it’ll be good to see each other face-to-face again!

Our 2020 accounts reflected the pattern of a lot of UK businesses, and we did make a surplus after all our activities were concluded. Inevitably, we postponed our in-person PestEx event planned for 2021 to 2022. Those that have followed my reports over recent years will know how key that event is to our finances.

Consequently, deferring PestEx will severely challenge us and especially since we’re still all operating under the shadow of Covid-19.

A prudent 2021 budget has been set by the Executive Board which continues to work to ensure we deliver our strategy, invest in our strategic initiatives, and support you over this and forthcoming years.

To close, once again I’ll take this opportunity to welcome all our new members in 2020 - there were a significant number of you.

I wholeheartedly encourage both old and new to become involved with, what is after all, your Association. For it to work, it needs your passion and energy.

So please attend events, join in, serve on the Committees or Board, and find out how your Association serves its members and the wider industry. I wish everyone success in 2021.

Thank you.

Mark Williams
BPCA Honorary Treasurer
membership@bpca.org.uk

They work for you

The Executive Board is the governing body of the Association and Board Members, as Directors, have a duty of care to both BPCA Members and the BPCA Staff team.

The Board’s emphasis is on strategy and performance, stewardship and conformance.

The Board also ensures that resources are used appropriately (money, time, staff etc.) and that relevant legislation is adhered to.