FROM THE PRESIDENT

Our future is based on remembering who we are and why we were created. This was a time for us to return to our purpose and to create an exciting future by doing so.

Dear Members,

The best way that I can describe the year that just passed, is like a roller coaster. As the largest registered club in Australia, we started our year with a new Group CEO and some amazing success, to then see COVID-19 hit us and to face a pivotal point in our Club history. In March, within 15 hours, we went from breaking all previous records with a thriving community focused business with over $140 million in revenue, to a Government mandated closure of our industry, resulting in almost no revenue at all and more than 600 staff with no work.

Whilst the shock and immediate impact was palpable, the experience itself became one of those that made me proud to be President of Mounties Group. Instead of panic and locking down the hatches, we identified an opportunity. We used the time to revisit all that we do, ask ourselves why we do things the way that we do and developed a plan to be an even better Mounties into the future for our members.

We are a ‘profit for purpose’ business created over 50 years ago to spend our profits on improving the lives of our members. As more than 90% of our members live in the local communities in which we operate, it’s also about improving the communities around us to improve the lives of our members. Even in times as tough as 2020 has been, we were able to donate and contribute $6 million to our local community to meet this promise. Our future is based on remembering who we are and why we were created. This was a time for us to return to our purpose and to create an exciting future by doing so. Mounties Group has always been based on social inclusion, the simple delivery of venues, services and facilities that afford all people the best opportunities to enjoy life. I am pleased to say that purpose was a reason we came through the COVID-19 experience of 2020 as well as we did, and gave us a clear direction for our future.

MEMBERSHIPS

5%

42%

144,511 MEMBERS

53%

Mounties

Northern Sites

Western Community Sites

2020 was a year where our club business was impacted significantly with a 10 week closure and as a result we have posted a loss of $5.2 million from our Clubs, but because we made some changes to our business early in the year and because over recent years we have been committed to improving our members lives in numerous areas, we still netted a profit. Our decision and our members support to diversify into areas such as retirement living, meant our non-core business generated a profit of $13.2 million and as a result, in these difficult times, we are posting a net profit of $7.5 million. An outstanding result from Mounties Group at the same time as predictions are that up to 40% of Registered Clubs may close due to the Coronavirus impact. I must commend our Board, CEO and team for such an outstanding result in difficult times. I know the hard work, effort and passion that was in place made a huge difference. However, I also need to say a very heartfelt thank you to our members and sub-clubs who were impacted and had to put on hold their activities to keep each other safe from this terrible virus, while at the same time, give our great club the time and opportunity to work our way through this time of pandemic. Your own sacrifices and support made a great positive difference. This pandemic we have come to call COVID-19 is having a terrible impact on the normal lives of our members. Our entire business has been based on social inclusion and to not be able to offer that community hub where people meet with friends, enjoy time with family and get a break from the normal stress and grind of everyday life has been challenging. I am however pleased with the way we as a Club found other ways to serve our members both in the short and long term during this time. As you know, we have now created Mounties Care, a medical service exclusive to members of Mounties Group that has professional medical staff available free of charge for advice via our hotline and is growing to meet many other needs of our members. By the end of June we had already had hundreds of members benefit from the service, whether it was a simple phone call for advice on COVID-19, through to help getting an aged care assessment for care in their home, or for a telehealth service for things such as exercise physiology or physiotherapy. I have asked our team to give you more information about this wonderful service now available to members, later in this annual report, so please take the time to read it so you too can benefit. Future investments in the health and medical fields will provide even more benefit to our members as we aim to make a positive difference. We are taking our purpose of improving the lives of our members more serious than ever before.

Other clubs have not been so lucky and as I said before, the experts are predicting that up to 40% of venues across NSW will close and these clubs play an important part in their local communities as Mounties venues do in ours. For us, this is another opportunity to both grow our business and to protect our future. Mounties Group could save a few clubs from closing, while at the same time protecting ourselves if we had to again close one of our venues as we voluntarily did in July following a COVID-19 case of a visiting member. For us, this is an opportunity that might not arise for another 50 to 100 years. I also wanted to say thank you to our amazing staff. Our staff have been wonderful during this time and truly did reinforce the way we see our entire Group as one family. Whilst other clubs closed down and their staff sat at home, our amazing staff took the closure as an opportunity to do some wonderful things. On ANZAC Day, 90 of our staff jumped in their own cars and gave their own time to deliver ANZAC cookies to older members and to simply say hi and check how they were. Other staff made more than 3,000 phone calls to members to check if they needed anything and even others provided a support network for each other with regular calls and messages. Finally, as I said it has been a roller coaster of a year. We went from great success unlike anything we have experienced, to the most challenging time in our club’s history. However, we have also seen and are using the time as our greatest opportunity to make sure Mounties Group is here for our members for many decades to come. For that I am grateful to be surrounded by our wonderful members, staff and fellow directors during this time. I am truly proud and because of you we are now positioned better than we were, in a stronger position and more prepared to do more for our members than ever before.

I look forward to the journey ahead and for taking on the future with you.

Kevin Ingram OAM

President