Liverpool FC Reports Record Kit Sales
Liverpool FC was boosted by record-breaking kit sales from new kit sponsor Nike as it cut losses in the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 financial year.
The Premier League club said overall revenue was down £3m to £487m during the 12-month period to 31st May, 2021. Figures were negatively impacted by fans being absent from almost all matches due to COVID restrictions, however, revenue was aided by the inclusion of the latter stages of the prolonged 2019-20 Premier League season, which ran from July to August 2020, before the start of the 2020-21 season.
With fans absent, matchday revenue fell from £70m to £3m, a drop of 95%. However, media revenue grew from £201m during 2019-20 to £266m, in the main due to the inclusion of games from two seasons.
Commercial revenue also rose slightly from £217.4m to £217.6m. Although there was an impact to non-matchday commercial revenues during the period, including retail stores, stadium tours and the museum closing due to the pandemic, there was still strong growth in partnerships sales. A total of 13 new partnerships were announced, including Nike, Expedia, Amazon, Quorn and SC Johnson.
The 2020-21 period also saw record-breaking kit sales with the new Nike partnership and mobile transactions increased by 89% on the club’s online retail store. Three new physical stores were opened in Thailand and Singapore.
Overall, the club’s loss before tax fell by £41.5m to £4.8m.
Andy Hughes, Liverpool FC’s Managing Director, said, “These latest results demonstrate the significant financial impact of the global COVID pandemic, which affected all areas of the business.
“We have worked really hard these past years to get us into a really strong and sustainable financial position. Despite navigating through a very challenging and uncertain period, overall revenue remained flat, demonstrating the underlying financial strength of the business.”
Liverpool said its social media channels surpassed 100m followers during the year, which included 30m on Instagram, 20m on Twitter and more than 4m on TikTok.
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