Scottish sweetie company Golden Casket (Greenock), the firm behind the Millions and "£One Pounders" brands, has revealed it fell to a loss of more than £2 million after writing off an investment in and loan to football club Morton.
The family-owned firm’s latest Companies House filing shows that it fell to an after-tax loss of £2.016 million in the year to December 31, 2021, from a profit of £436,075 in the prior 12 months.
Golden Casket (Greenock) made an operating profit of £463,155 from its confectionery business in the year to December 2021, up from £420,939 in the prior 12 months.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Hopes of end to Brexit stupidity under Braverman and Sunak look misplaced
Greenock Morton Football Club, which is currently fourth in the Scottish Championship behind Queen’s Park, Dundee and Ayr United, is now majority-owned by its fans.
In their strategic report in the accounts, signed on behalf of the board by Crawford Rae, the directors say: “In September 2021, the remainder of our shareholding in Greenock Morton Football Club was transferred to Morton Club Together (MCT), ending our long association with the club. As part of the transaction, our substantial investment in the club and a loan totalling £2,385,213 were written off such that our overall result for the year is a loss after tax of £2,016,442.”
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Chaotic Tories look intent on making bad situation worse as 2023 looms
Crawford Rae’s father, Douglas Rae, founded Golden Casket in 1959 when sweets were less than 6p per quarter and milk was 4p per pint. Douglas Rae, a former chairman of Greenock Morton Football Club, died in 2018 at the age of 87.
The turnover of Golden Casket (Greenock) rose to £21.6 million in the year to December 2021, from £18.4m in the prior 12 months.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Two years on, Brexit ebullience gone and many have woken up
The firm's workforce was steady, at 45.
It says on its website: "We are a family owned and run company. We now have the third generation of the Rae family working in different departments within the company from sales and marketing to production. Our staff, many with over 20 years' service, will tell you that ‘the Casket’ has a family feel to it. That sense of belonging and of family values is well known in the confectionery industry."
The company adds: "The estate where all production, warehousing and offices are based was purchased in 2016 by Douglas Rae to ensure the continued future of the company for his family and employees. There is also constant investment in machinery and plant. We are always striving to grow and continue delighting our customers worldwide."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel