The Cutlers - The Company Today

Finance Committee Report

FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

Last year, this report said that “given the very high levels of debt, both Governmental and personal, that have accumulated in recent years, the time of reckoning was bound to come and we now face a long period of austerity. The Company will not be immune to the problems but the Members are determined to preserve the inheritance of the past and the influence of the Company”.

The painful symptoms of that austerity are now with us. Our society inevitably faces major structural change and no one likes it. Like it or not, however, they will happen.

The Cutlers’ Company is a traditional organisation and is relatively inflexible. Fortunately, in recent years, we have had a series of strategic reviews that have enabled us to foresee problems and go some way to resolve them. Another is now taking place. It is designed to ensure that we continue the process of opening up and modernising the Company whilst preserving the core activities.

In the short term, 2010/11 has not been an easy year. The catering operation did slightly better than we anticipated. The contract expires this month and we say goodbye to Sodexho with whom we have enjoyed a good relationship for a decade. New caterers then take over – more of this in the Hall’s Committee report. Dividend income increased a little but the capital values of our portfolios have followed the markets in painful volatility.

As always, the donations from Freemen and Friends are very important to the Company and we thank them for their generosity. They can also help by ensuring that the Hall is used for any appropriate activity with which they have influence. As a venue it is without equal.

After some years, I am retiring as Chairman of the Finance Committee and will be succeeded by a senior Past Master, Martin Howell. I have enjoyed the challenges over the years and am sure he will too. I wish him well. I hoped that the transfer would take place in calmer seas but it was not to be.

Michael J Mallett