Clarets announce healthy profit

That comes despite staff costs rising from £38m to £61m, with turnover increasing threefold to £121m.

The profit compares to a net loss of £3.74m the previous season, when the Clarets won the Championship title to make an instant return to the Premier League.

The figure compares favourably with the record £30.1m profit recorded in June 2015, and has subsequently laid the foundations for the club to secure back-to-back top-flight seasons for the first time since 1974.

In a statement to shareholders, chairman Mike Garlick said: “Following our Championship winning season in 2015/16, we felt it was essential that the club should finally retain its place in the Premier League for the 2017/18 season, at what would have been the third time of asking.

“Given that we benefited from the first season of improved TV broadcasting rights, which guaranteed a minimum payment of £95m, we felt we had never been in a better position to retain our status in the world’s most competitive league.

“While major investments were made in the playing squad during the close season, we believe it is important that all shareholders and fans understand we are still a club that develops talent, especially at the senior level.

“As we hopefully continue to maintain our Premier League status, this will become a key feature of sustaining our profitability, which we feel is essential if we are to maintain our stability as a club that thinks and plans for the long-term, rather than making poor, short-term decisions under financial pressure.”

Mr Garlick added: “While our wage bill is still one of the lower ones in the division, it is most certainly not the lowest and, coupled with our player incentive schemes, we believe we now have a wage structure capable of attracting playing talent of a sufficient ability to vastly improve the chance of maintaining our place in the top-flight, compared to our previous attempts.

“It is also worth noting that while our profits appear very healthy, we do have to maintain a very close eye on cash flow and keep a very close watch on all our costs.

“There are so many examples of clubs that lose their grip on this area and, upon relegation, disappear into relative oblivion, or suffer distressing times for several reasons, which of course is something we must avoid.”

Elsewhere in the annual accounts, match income rose from £4.98m to £5.84m, catering sales increased from £1.58m to £2.41m, retail sales grew from £1.1m to £1.66m and other commercial activities were up significantly from £2.72m to £6.28m.