V&A Dundee has posted £800k first year profits.

MUSEUM: Accounts show attraction made surplus of almost £800,000

The charity behind V&A Dundee made a £780,000 surplus in the year the attraction welcomed its first visitors.

Newly published accounts show Design Dundee Limited brought in income of £8.55 million for the year ending March 31. The museum opened in September 2018.

The revenue included grants of £5.2m, donations of £752,000 and in kind support worth £1m, as well as trading income of £903,000 and admissions and exhibition fees of £674,000.

The group’s costs for the year were recorded at £7.77m.

The financial accounts cover just over six months of the attraction being open to the public – during which time more than 500,000 visitors attended the museum.

Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, said: “2018-19 has been an extraordinary year as we transitioned from being a capital project to an operating museum.

“This has involved a considerable scaling-up of our operation to put everything in place to open the museum to the public and then manage exceptional visitor numbers during the first six months.”

He added: “Following this significant peak of activity, we went on to experience a buoyant first summer and we are now focusing on establishing the year-round steady state operation.”

There were 96,000 purchased admissions to see the V&A’S inaugural exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed and Style.

Between September and March, there were more than 2,500 engagements with schools through workshops and tours.

Research commissioned by V&A Dundee – based on 500,000 visitors in the first year, a figure achieved in the first six months – showed a positive economic impact in Dundee of £10.3m, supporting 178 full-time equivalent jobs.

The museum building, the first in the UK designed by Japanese architect

“We went on to experience a buoyant first summer.

PHILIP LONG, V&A DUNDEE DIRECTOR

Kengo Kuma, is part of the Dundee City Council estate and is operated by Design Dundee Limited rent free.

The company said its board had approved a policy to build reserves to £500,000, which equates to approximately six weeks of running costs.

Last week, The Courier revealed V&A Dundee needs to bring in £10m in private funding over the next five years in order to “sustain” its success.

The museum is currently recruiting a major gifts manager who will be responsible for sourcing at least £2m a year from private backers.

Picture: Kris Miller. Long queues formed as V&A Dundee opened its doors in September 2018.