The Toughsheet Stadium

The Tough Shit stadium…

I thought it was a joke! Not a great name. Will be known as the TS Community Stadium. Hope we got plenty of cash for it.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:

I thought it was a joke!  Not a great name.  Will be known as the TS Community Stadium.  Hope we got plenty of cash for it.

More likely the BS stadium...

Bolton Wanderers have today announced a new five-year stadium naming rights deal with Bolton-based recyclable building product manufacturer, Toughsheet.

The home of Bolton Wanderers will be officially renamed as the Toughsheet Community Stadium from the 1st July 2023, in line with the start of the 2023/24 season. The stadium is currently known as the University of Bolton Stadium.

The long-term partnership with Toughsheet represents the largest sponsorship deal in the club’s history and sees the company become a Principal Partner of the club.

Founded in Bolton in 1968 and now employing over 85 people from its base in Westhoughton, the family business is headed up by Managing Director Dougi Mercer and Director Paul Mullineaux.

Toughsheet are market leaders in creating useable building products from 100% recycled materials and are the number one producer of ecological damp proof membrane, exporting their products globally.

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Pictured left to right are Toughsheet's Sales Manager Eva Mercer, Managing Director Dougi Mercer and Director Paul Mullineaux.

Working with leading sports agency Sporting Group International (SGI), Bolton Wanderers began the process of finding a new stadium naming rights partner in September 2022.

The offer was taken to over 400 brands and over the course of six months, the club met with around 20 companies that expressed an interest in the opportunity, including the University of Bolton.

Sharon Brittan, Chairman of Bolton Wanderers said: “When we met with Dougi and his team as part of the process to find a new stadium naming rights partner, it was clear straight away that they live and breathe Bolton.

“Lifelong fans, they have built a hugely successful business in the town with an impressive green agenda that employs local people. Their love for Bolton Wanderers and for Bolton itself is what set them apart as the right company for the club to team up with.

“Through this partnership, they now play an immensely significant role in helping us take the next step forward in securing the longer-term stability of the club and our ambitious plans for the future.

“We extend our heartfelt thanks to Toughsheet for choosing to share their successes in a way that directly benefits Bolton Wanderers and makes our club stronger for everyone. We look forward to working with them closely in the coming years.

“I would also like to thank our CEO Neil Hart, and Adrian Wright and Charlie Bannister at SGI for their diligent work in supporting us to secure this fantastic sponsorship deal for the club.”

Dougi Mercer, Managing Director of Toughsheet said: “As Bolton Wanderers fans, this is a dream come true and a huge moment for everyone involved in Toughsheet.

“We had spent some years feeling disillusioned with the club but since Sharon Brittan and her team have been at the helm, that feeling has dissipated. Bolton Wanderers has been transformed under her stewardship into a financially stable, true community club.

“It’s because of the team of staff now in post at Bolton Wanderers that we jumped at the chance to be involved. What better moment to join this journey and be part of what is happening here.

“We love this club and this town. We are delighted to be in the position to give something back and to be part of the history of this incredible stadium.

“We look forward to working with Sharon Brittan, Neil Hart and the entire Wanderers’ Board. We can’t wait to get started – here’s to many successful years ahead!”

The sponsorship deal with Toughsheet encompasses high profile external and internal signage and digital in-stadia assets, as well as the naming rights to the stadium.

TS community stadium. Transexual community stadium.

We will be nicknames the Tranny stadium. 

I don't believe this for one minute.

It must be a wind up.

Fwiw a very quick look at the company accounts shows this -

Dougi Mercer is the sole owner.

Reported a £2m profit on last years accounts - March 2022.

Fixed assets of £5.5m (and just for Bob, of those, intangible assets of just £80,000!)

Net current assets £3m as well (meaning they are solvent and apparently in a good financial way even allowing for a further £1.5m owing to creditors falling due in more than a years time).

No secured charges shown to be on the company (that's a good thing - FV owe the likes of PBP and the Administrator for instance still) however the bank holds a mortgage debenture.

There's something in there of redemption of shares, that looks to me as though Mr Mercer is selling some of his shareholding back to the company for £550k each year.  I'm not sure I'm understanding it correctly but at first glance to me is that Mercer is taking half a million out of his company each year by reducing his shareholding in it.  Seems all ok and legal and the company can afford it.  Maybe Bob can see more to it perhaps? (Bob, note Cash flows from investing activities (2021 - £550k  2022 - £3m) p16 or 18 of 33.  (EDIT - see also note below on Rona Hargreaves).

Highest paid Director in the last accounts received £225k I assume that is Mr Mercer?

Seem to have invested £3.5m in new plant in the year (assume this is somehow linked in to £1.5m creditors due in more than one year?  I note Director loan of £780k shown for this year).

Over the year the company repurchased 122 of it shares for £3m  (without looking too deeply I suspect this has something to do with a Rona Hargreaves who at one time held 112 shares when at that time Mr Mercer and a Joleyne Mercer held just 17 apiece (Confirmation Statement dated July 2018 and changed on 13th July, 2022).

Family members also seem to own and trade with Wrapp Recycling Ltd and Blackrod Transport Ltd.

All seems ok on the surface to me but Bob is the one who is the expert in these matters, so I look forward to any views he may have.

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NOTE ALSO - Mr Mercer seems to be involved with a number of other companies too!

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God, I thought the Unibollocks was bad enough.


CAZOO seems attractive now.

Natasha Whittam wrote:I don't believe this for one minute.

It must be a wind up.

It’s not the 1st April

Seems like it.

I thought the weekend couldn't get any worse.

Now I have to attend the Tough Shit stadium. Do they make toilet paper?

I'll stick to The Reebok, if it's all the same to you.

I'm absolutely amazed this isn't a wind up.

What were the club thinking?

The 'Bellend Community Stadium' would have been better.

To be fair the only other bidders were the Boo Hoo Stadium and the Pretty Little Things Stadium!!

Could have been worse of course.
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boltonbonce wrote:Could have been worse of course.
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It looks like Team Mercers are partial to a bit of mirth and merriment and I'm all in favour of that.

Radio Manchester has been taking the piss all morning.

boltonbonce wrote:Radio Manchester has been taking the piss all morning.

Not surprising

Thanks Sluffy.

I've just taken a quick look at the Toughsheet accounts.

They've been doing alright and Dougi's taken quite a lot out recently. £3.3m in the last financial year alone (see Note 29).

A big difference between him and Baron Rodborough is that the purchase of own shares seems to have been funded from profits and cash generated, not from debt.

P.S. I don't suppose Dougi has tried to sell the company name to the company. Vince took £3million when he did that. It may well have paid for Rodborough Fort.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:Thanks Sluffy.

I've just taken a quick look at the Toughsheet accounts.

They've been doing alright and Dougi's taken quite a lot out recently. £3.3m in the last financial year alone (see Note 29).

A big difference between him and Baron Rodborough is that the purchase of own shares seems to have been funded from profits and cash generated, not from debt.

P.S. I don't suppose Dougi has tried to sell the company name to the company. Vince took £3million when he did that. It may well have paid for Rodborough Fort.

Thanks Bob, I did notice that but I wasn't certain that it wasn't just a repayment to him, rather than Vince type 'grab'.

Two things had me confused the first being that the company invested nearly £4m in new Tangible Assets (see note 15) without any obvious loan being taken to purchase this investment (nothing has been secured against assets for instance).  An amount of £1.5m has appeared for creditors falling due over 12 months - but where has the other £2.5m come from - the cash at bank has gone up from £1.7m to £3.2m in the year (so presumably not there?).  The companies consolidated statement of income from the last accounts to this one seems to me to suggest it wasn't from revenue, so I was thinking maybe Dougi had founded it himself, from funds external to the company, as a short term loan perhaps?

The other thing that confused me was the significant change of share ownership in the accounting period together with the company buying back some of the shares to the value of £3m.   The major beneficiary of this I would have thought would have been Rona Hargreaves, but if she was then I couldn't see where the company paid her for her shares?

I was thinking maybe she sold them to Dougi first, then he sold them to the company - hence the major part of the £3.3m being for that?

Overall my thoughts are that everything looks 'good' and does seem to be genuine.

However maybe I'm missing something but from what I see so far everything looks fair and reasonable to me.

I haven't done any detailed analytics on this yet, Sluffy, but first impressions are favourable.

It looks to me that Rona Hargreaves retired from the business on or about her 65th birthday and that payment for her shares were funded via some of the transactions you have highlighted.

I expect there's more to it but I might get chance to have a detailed look in the next couple of days.

Toughsheet seem to be getting a good bit of publicity out of it already. Good luck to them, say I.