By Geoff Vause
A purge of senior staff has contributed to Trust House improving its return to the community.
Dropping four of nine senior managers who collected between $110,000 and $120,000 each in 2015 played the biggest part in boosting trading profit by $470,000.
The organisation now has five senior managers taking home between $110,000 and $270,000. The directors, trustees, chief executive and other senior managers took home $1.1m in 2016 against $1.4m in 2015.
The management roles are now corporate services (Richard Simmonds), housing and infrastructure (Craig Thomson), operations and marketing (Jerry Crump), gaming and compliance (Cindy Grant), led by chief executive Allan Pollard.
Board chairman J W Kershaw, appointed in 2007, was paid $35,000 for his services. Director D B Henry (2005) received $25,000, B J Bourke (1989) and D J Baskerville (2011) were each paid $22,000, with R D Southey and L M Griffiths (both appointed in 2013) receiving $19,000 each.
The Trust’s gaming machines are beating the punters, taking $8.6m out of their pockets in 2016 compared with $5.7m in 2015, a $3m jump.
About $3.8m was returned through grants, with Destination Wairarapa being the big winner at $235,000 and Aratoi Foundation at $150,000. Porirua Little Theatre got $180,000 and Hastings District Council $39,000.
Trust House boss Allan Pollard said he was “very pleased with the outcomes”.
“It’s been a great year for Trust House, with a significant improvement in performance across all our business segments.”
“The contributing factors for this have been the restructure of our major shareholding entities to reduce our group expenses, including the reduction of the senior management team to reduce costs and improvements in our operational efficiencies.”
“We’ve put every part of our business under the microscope to make sure we are operating as smartly and efficiently as we can.”
Trading profit was up $470,000, and total group profit was $6.5m.
“We’ve been able to increase our charitable donations by $211,000 and injected $305,000 to sponsorship. Overall our contribution to communities was $4.1 million,” Mr Pollard said.
“This has included health and welfare, education, community promotion and development, arts and history and recreation and sport.
“One of our strongest business models, community housing, has also benefited from our positive results, over the last 12 months we have reinvested over $1 million,” he said.
“The investment has included home insulation, log burners, heat pumps, painting and decorating, as well as preventative maintenance.”
“Overall we now have an asset base of $80 million with equity of $54 million, this demonstrates a strong and sustainable balance sheet that will enhance future growth.”
“Whichever way you cut the numbers the one real certainty is that we have contributed excellent capital returns to the communities in which we trade,” Mr Pollard said.
Trust House Ltd operates a range of businesses in Wairarapa, Pahiatua, Flaxmere, Feilding and Porirua, including 500 rental homes, liquor stores, bars, hotels, supermarkets, a hydroelectric scheme and a foundation.
