Mr. Scholes: Preston North End Plc has one subsidiary and that's Preston North End football club. Our primary activity is the operation of a professional football club, we play in the English First Division, having been promoted as champions from Division Two last year. So our business is the operation of that football club and the ancillary operations which derive from that. Preston North End dates back to the 19th century. We were one of the founder members of the English Football League and in fact were the winners of the first League and Cup double in the 1880s. So we have a long and distinguished history. We've been winners of the League on a number of occasions and winners of the FA Cup on a number of occasions. However, it's fair to say that that distinguished history took a dip over the last 30 years or so. Over the last 30 years Preston North End has occupied the lower reaches of the English League, predominantly. Over the last five years we've reversed that, having won the championship of Division Three in 1996, then followed that up with the championship of Division Two in the year 2000. So we're now currently playing in the nation-wide League Division One, which is the highest level that we've played at as a club for over 20 years.
TWST: What's the strategy for 2001? What's on the agenda?
Mr. Scholes: The strategy has really followed the same track for the
past four years, and that is fourfold: one, to invest in the first team
to achieve success in the football league - success sporting-wise, but
from that flows commercial success. Secondly, to develop a Premiership-
quality facility at Deep dale, so we are building a stadium which will
befit a premier league team. The third part of the strategy is to
develop all the commercial income streams which are ancillary to the
football club so that we are maximising the opportunities which having a
major brand, which Preston North provides to us. And the fourth part is
to invest in our youth development facilities in order to attract and
then nurture the very best youth talent that we can so that that then
supplies the first team in the future. Now, that's been our strategy,
with some modifications to it, for the past four years. We've been
extremely successful in developing the football team, as evidenced by
the two championships we've won. At the same time we've built one half
of the stadium and we're going to be building a third stand starting in
just over a month's time. So that's development of the football team and
development of the facility. The commercial income streams we've
developed significantly. Over the past four years the income from those
commercial stream has risen by approximately 400%.
Tickers included in this excerpt: PNE.L
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