Companies: GOAL   

Goals Soccer Centres, the five-a-side football centre operator, had a striking year in 2005. The group, which joined AIM at 62p in late 2004, delighted followers with emphatic 12 month figures, showing pre-tax profits kicking 296 per cent higher to £2.9 million on a 35 per cent top line leap to £11.2 million. This was driven by nine per cent like-for-like sales growth and new site openings.

Chaired by influential sports industry figure Sir Rodney Walker and bossed by Scottish management duo Keith Rogers and Bill Gow, Goals is thriving thanks to the extraordinary popularity of the small-sided game, which has overtaken the 11-a-side game in terms of UK participation rates.

Currently 18 centres strong, Goals has a further four openings prepared for 2006, including sites in Bradford, Plymouth and Birmingham’s Star City, where a site is under construction on the top floor of a car park!

Such savvy site selection has been key to Goals’ success. Sites have to be commercially viable and within a ten-minute drive of a population of 150,000 at the very least. Encouragingly, all sites scheduled for 2006 and 2007 have a 300,000 minimum within ten miles. ‘We go for locations of an unrivalled commercial nature,’ explains Rogers, ‘because we are a high footfall business.’

Also pivotal to prospects is the ‘next generation’ concept, which offers market leading artificial pitch technology, quality facilities and superior customer service at locations decked out to reflect a passion for the beautiful game. The service is capped off with bespoke systems providing information about fixtures, results and league tables.

‘Our sites ooze passion for football. People come because they want to be there. This contrasts with the massive levels of attrition seen in health and fitness,’ says Rogers.

Alongside results, two brand partnerships were announced. The first was with football brand Umbro, an FA sponsor, while the second key tie-up was with Powerade, the official sports drink for the World Cup. Rogers is keen to have sponsorship deals that are ‘squeaky clean’, which rules out gaming firms and fast food brands. This is partly influenced by the fact that nearly half of its centres are on school sites, so Goals has to represent the ‘best ethics’ in sport such as fitness for kids and fair play.

‘We are building a brand name that stands for something’, enthuses Rogers. ‘We take an ethical approach to branding that ensures we keep ourselves clean because we want a seat at the table of football at the very highest level.’ Like AIM rival Powerleague, Goals has considerable growth to go for in the UK alone. ‘There are opportunities overseas, but we can keep growing for a long, long time without ever having to look to Europe’, adds Rogers. ‘And recession, if anything, would be a good thing for us,’ he teases, convinced more expensive, less enjoyable pursuits would feel the consumer pinch rather than five-a-side.

For 2006, analysts are shooting for pre-tax profits of £5 million from £16.4 million sales, ahead of £7.5 million from revenues of £22.7 million by ’07. Earnings of 8.1p and 11.7p place Goals on forward multiples of 32.3 and 22.4, before a drop to 17.1 by 2008.
However, with earnings set to grow at circa 76 per cent this year and 44 per cent next, those multiples are more than palatable for investors. Throw in a progressive dividend policy and the shares look a strong buy.

Goals Soccer Centres	AIM	£70.8m	169.00p	-3.75p
Click here for interactive charting
Other company articles:
Goals Soccer Centres			03/09/2008
Numis Securities			03/03/2008
Goals nets record profit			03/03/2008
Goals Soccer Centres			25/02/2008
Goals Soccer Centres			03/09/2007