The National Piping Centre in Glasgow has returned a significant increase in profits its latest accounts show. In the financial year ended April 30, 2019, the Centre had an income of over £3.5m against expenditure of just over £3m giving them a profit of slightly less than £500,000 and a doubling of its profit on 2018.
The exact figures: Income £3,554,151; Expenditure £3,067,655; Profit: £486,496. The details are contained in the Centre’s accounts lodged with the Office of Scottish Charities Register (OSCR).
Comparing the NPC’s figures for the year to April 30, 2018, we see a considerable increase in income of over £1m from £2,377,223 to £3,554,151. Profit in that financial year (2018) was £230,367.
The Centre’s income and expenditure since 2015 is set out in the following table published by OSCR:
Part of the Centre’s income comes from Creative Scotland, the Scottish Government’s arts funding body. CS’s ‘Regular Funding’ scheme has committed £150,00 to the Centre for the years 2018 – 2021, a total of £450,000.
The Centre also receives financial support from the William Grant Foundation. No figures are available for 2019 but in 2018 the WGF gave the Centre £40,000 and, specifically, the Piping Live Festival an additional £15,000.
(It will be of interest to note that in 2018 the Foundation were generous sponsors of solo piping competition giving £16,600 to specific contests, though this is a considerable reduction on the support they used to give. They also gave £20,000 to the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust who run the annual Schools Pipe Band Championship.)
The Centre’s Piping Live Festival is due to post its figures for 2019 shortly. In 2018 it showed a modest profit of £4,402 on an income of £192,793.
The Centre is currently headhunting for a new Principal of Piping who will be in post from June 1, 2020. The new appointee’s duties will include running Piping Live.
In 2017 the Centre took over the ailing College of Piping and assumed ownership of its assets including its building in a prime location in Glasgow’s west end.
Piping Press has learned that economist Mr Graeme Roy, formerly of the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, is no longer a Director of the Piping Centre. Mr Roy is Head of Economics and Director of the prestigious Fraser of Allander Research Institute at Strathclyde University in Glasgow and was for a time an advisor to the Scottish Government.