2024 was a bumper yr for the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale group. Sports activities retailer Decathlon joined as title sponsor: out went the brown shorts and in got here new equipment together with bikes. The group had a roaring begin to the season however fell quick within the Tour de France after which completed with a podium on the Vuelta because of Ben O’Connor and completed sixth on the UCI rankings. Now we will see the price range for the yr.
2024The entity behind the group is France Cyclisme SAS, in the course of the yr it modified authorized standing a SARL to a SAS firm, the distinction is just too small to matter for a sports activities weblog. These are the printed accounts for the yr ending 31 December 2024.
Le price range
The headline price range from the cropped screengrab is €31.1 million, up €6.4 million on the earlier yr.
Yr-by-year
As one of many uncommon groups to persistently publish accounts we will observe the numbers yearly. 2024 noticed the price range leap and we’ll discover why in a second (for sticklers: the chart makes use of the web variety of €31.340 million which differs from the headline quantity cited above as this works higher for comparability through the years).
The wage invoice
The price range may need jumped by €6.4 million however this isn’t all the way down to a corresponding enhance in wages. As you possibly can see the wage invoice for 2024 was €13.7 million, up from €11.8 million the earlier yr. However we will return to the 2022 accounts to see the wage invoice was €12.3 million that yr so these prices haven’t soared. Notes to the accounts present the group has gone from 71 workers in 2022 to 102 in 2024.
As ever for French groups there payroll taxes to pay, right here amounting to 35% of the wage invoice. Different groups don’t pay this, both as a result of they’re in several jurisdictions with lighter taxes or they don’t have the identical rules that require French groups to tackle riders as full-time workers. It’s an actual headwind for French groups as recruiting a rider on the market or internet price comes with a mark-up on prime or utilizing these numbers it prices €18.5 million to rent €13.7 million’s price of riders.
What’s the wage invoice? It’s difficult as there are salaries and likewise different bills. A footnote to the accounts reveals the UCI financial institution assure of €3.9 million. Usually that is 25% of the gross wage for the group so multiply this by 4 and we get a complete of €16 million. There’s no information to the variations so one guess is in the beginning of the yr the forecast gross wage invoice was €16 million however by the tip of the yr with bonuses paid out it climbed to €18.5 million however once more that’s speculating.
CostsThere are “different purchases and exterior fees” of €11 million and these will not be specified. These are so hefty you’d assume them linked to wages as these make up the majority of each outfit’s prices, usually paying riders makes use of up 70-80% of a group’s price range… however there’s no point out of this so we’re left in the dead of night.
Precise “purchases of uncooked supplies and different provides” is listed as €625k so right here consider gas, meals, coaching camp inns and such like nevertheless it’s not damaged down into particulars.
All this meant the group ran a lack of €846k for the yr which works on the books for 2025.
Inner issuesFor all of the success on the highway it was a fraught time contained in the group HQ. The squad was based by Vincent Lavenu however he was ejected in the course of the course of the yr. Earlier in 2022 he’d been pressured to promote his stake within the group to Ag2r La Mondiale as a situation of the insurer persevering with to sponsor the group and now as a mere worker his contract was terminated.
The accounts present €847,000 put apart for “litigation” however that is in direction of the final reorganisation of the group with the junior and U23 improvement groups being introduced into the group and reorganisation prices related to this. The group used to work with a membership in Chambéry as its feeder group however now has its personal in-house squads and with these added prices and workers on the books.
These provisions are solely ones, marking an finish to the lengthy saga with Issue and Merckx bikes that loyal readers would possibly keep in mind for the claims of lacking funds.
There’s additionally a €300,000 switch cost to a different group. Which rider, which group? It’s not said however we will wager it’s for Johannes Staune-Mittet’s transfer from Visma-LAB with the Norwegian switching groups by breaking his contract early and each groups agreeing to settle this.
À fonds la formeDecathlon joined as a title sponsor. Gross sales managers had been purring from all of the speak of how the group’s new Van Rysel RCR Professional bike was an element within the success and anecdotally gross sales of the bike thrived. How a lot did this value? Properly Decathlon paid as a title sponsor however the accounts embody a separate point out of the corporate’s bike model Van Rysel
Right here you possibly can see €3.5 million for the bike and clothes provider. That’s rather a lot for World Tour bike sponsorship though the going price is seven figures this days. Notes within the account present a few of the €3.5 million can also be for 2025.
Steadiness sheetTeams typically have tiny steadiness sheets as a result of they maintain few property, only a fleet of automobiles – which may be leased typically – and a few instruments from laptops to instruments. However this group has extra with €21.3 million of property and liabilities. It’s primarily all the way down to unpaid money owed just like the social safety funds on the wage invoice, unpaid as within the group merely had not made the cost on the time of the accounts so the approaching sum is sitting there, versus something overdue. Equally on 31 December 2024 the group was ready for suppliers to invoice them for €4.8 million in complete.
By way of property the automobile fleet is valued at €2.3 million, IT merchandise at €0.4 million and €0.6m on unspecified plant and layouts.
ConclusionAs ever this is without doubt one of the uncommon groups to publish a full set of accounts. Yearly estimates for World Tour group budgets seem on-line, typically in the course of the Tour de France, however they at all times appear to the numbers flawed for the groups that publish accounts so the figures for those who don’t have to be much more off.
This group’s longevity lets us evaluate yr after yr. It’s just one dataset relatively than the story of each group however illustrates how budgets have jumped. Right here the group price range has doubled on this decade alone whereas qualitatively the group has stayed as a mid-table squad. Wanting into the 2024 accounts the rise is just partly defined by hovering rider wages, there are different inside components like taking up board improvement groups to develop the workforce and placing cash apart for litigation dangers.
Groups are supposed to break even so the annual lack of €846k is critical however given Decathlon are happy and now CMA-CGM is becoming a member of, with speak of the price range going to €40 million this sum isn’t existential in the way in which recurring losses on this scale torpedoed the Intermarché group.
