It’s become common knowledge that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is running a series of, often controversial, cost-cutting exercises, however, the full extent of this has now been revealed.
In his first year as Manchester United co-owner, Ratcliffe has made massive waves in a bid to combat the financial mismanagement that’s taken place at Old Trafford over recent years.
So far he’s removed concessions on ticket prices, reduced funding to supporter groups associated with the club, and axed Sir Alex Ferguson’s multi-million-pound contract as the club’s global ambassador.
Further to this, the INEOS owner stripped employee benefits surrounding last season’s FA Cup final, and cut the staff Christmas party, also reducing the number of staff taken on the pre-season tour.
However, that’s nothing compared to the most recent revelation, curtesy of The Telegraph.
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe implements a “zero-based budget” policy
The report from The Telegraph has announced that as well as the cost-cutting schemes that have already been publicised, much more has been going on internally.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has reportedly had the group property service team who maintain Old Trafford, Carrington and the club’s other buildings, counting cartons of screws.
The request for the stock check was to ensure the group aren’t over-ordering, with other departments being asked to do similar exercises.
The INEOS owner has implemented a “zero-based budget” policy where each item of expenditure is being scrutinised to try and drive costs down.
This is reportedly also being feel in the Old Trafford canteen where portion sized have been reduced, with less variety on the menu, even with bulk orders of vegetables needing sign off.
United have also scrapped their £50 steward-of-the-week bonus, in place issuing a paper certificate to compliment their work.
As justification of the hard policy, United sources have suggested that much of the club’s expenditure have not been reviewed for years, with costs inflating.
Whilst the costs, on their own, might be viewed as insignificant, as a collective, they all amount to the massive operational expenditure for the club.
This type of policy isn’t new for INEOS though who implemented the same approach with their ethanol site in Grangemouth back in 2005. Despite initial uproar, after three months, the facility were no longer having unexpected costs crop up in their end-of-month cost reports from finance.
However, the main concern for the acceptance of this policy from staff is that employees are now spending their own money as company credit cards were abolished, with expenses being paid at the end of the month, leading staff to go out of pocket for weeks.
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