Author : Chris Pearson, Chairman
The summary financial results for the 2025 May Fair reveal another great year in terms of net result.
Inflationary factors have had a bigger impact that foreseen leading to a 16% YoY rise in base costs while gross revenue rose by 5% to a new record of £9,344.
Despite all of the higher inflationary impacts, the Headline Net Income (“Surplus”) is broadly the same as in 2024 at c£4,000 (£3,947 vs £4,032) and is another excellent result for the Friends.
These results demonstrate yet again the important financial value of this project, but it has another too: as a community project and in bringing people and the St Matthias community together in support of a very worthy charity, focuses on the heritage and preservation of the church. www.friendsofstmatthias.org.uk
- Headline numbers derive a broadly similar result in 2025 to 2024 i.e. net income of approx. £4k.
- Gross income rose 5% to a new record of £9,344 in 2025
- YoY Inflationary increases have had a notable impact on the result, yet it is still an excellent outcome
We were visited by the mayor and his wife during the tour of the May Fair with Pam Fleming. Chair of the organising committee, of which I am also a member.
As Chair of the Friend’s, I’m very proud of everyone who contributed to the day and made it such a pleasure and success. Well done to our outstanding, always cheerful and enthusiastic team, who were there from around 6:30am through to 8:30pm after the tidy up! A well-deserved rest (until next year!) for all the team!
I’d add a special note of thanks the RCVS for helping us to find volunteers, especially Gizem who is a professional chef, and who inspired us and was a delightful and cheerful person throughout the day, was outstanding cooking to perfection on the BBQ’s throughout the day … together with our regular team of Joe, Edgar, Richard, Martin and Adrian also doing an outstanding job to provide great hot food for our customers.
Angela and Margaret who’ve organized and run On the cakes stall for many years, attracted a wonderful spread on homemade cakes and produce for them to sell throughout the day. We are extremely grateful to all our bakers for their hard work before the Fair to produce such an excellent range of delicious cakes.
Many thanks to all our volunteers, friends and family members who gave freely of their time to make the stall such a joy to be on all day and a great success; And to all our visitors, both returning and those new customers to our fayre this year. We hope you enjoyed your delicious food, sourced from local specialist artisans.
This project is an outstanding community outreach project and has always been such for more than 25 years. It also makes people aware of St Matthias as an iconic and architecturally important and historic local church, with its prominent spire on the Hill, visible for many miles around, that is the reason for the Friend’s formation in the first place!
