ABERDEEN SCIENCE CENTRE

• ◆

  5 officer resignations in last 12 months

  Multiple officers have left the board recently — see the People section for who.

1. ABERDEEN SCIENCE CENTRE 2016-01-29 → present
2. SATROSPHERE 1988-10-03 → 2016-01-29

Values shown as filed in the company's annual accounts. — indicates the figure wasn't present under that line item in that period. About these numbers

Margins divide P&L lines by turnover. Gearing is liabilities over total assets. Current ratio is current assets over creditors falling due within one year. Interest cover is operating profit over absolute finance costs. Sector-distribution context coming next.

Accounting basis

FRS 102

Reporting scope

Standalone (parent only)

Abridged

Yes — abridged accounts (limited disclosure)

Auditor

Hall Morrice LLP

Audit opinion

Unqualified (clean)

Going concern

Affirmed

“In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.”

Significant events

• “2024/25 was a challenging year for the Centre. The ongoing cost of living increases, and various other competing events over the summer, saw a 20% reduction in our Admissions and other Commercial Income. This shortfall was however mitigated by cost savings and a very successful funding outcome. Our fundraising strategy continued to develop and allowed us to focus on longer term income generation via both restricted projects funds and unrestricted sponsorship. This saw us significantly exceed our funding objectives for 2024/25.”
• “We were pleased to welcome 9095 school pupils to the Science Centre, all of whom took part in a STEM engagement workshop as well as 4266 community engagements. This was a 15% increase on the previous year's figures, and were, once again, significantly above the targets given to us by the Scottish government.”
• “Our engagement also reached across the North Sea, where ASC partnered with Vitenfabrikken, a Science Centre in Sandnes near Stavanger, Norway. Supported by our long-term partner Equinor, the project enabled both Centres to develop engaging programmes on renewable energy, highlighting Norway's expertise in hydropower and Scotland's future in wind energy.”
• “Finally, we saw a significant change in Scotland's tourism sector, as VisitScotland announced the conclusion of its long-running Quality Assurance scheme. This marked the official end of our 5-star visitor attraction status.”
• “The Charity's "Net Outgoing Resources" on our Income and Expenditure Account show a loss for the year of £(421,654). This large loss is driven by the significant Depreciation charge of £506,734, mainly reflecting the annual depreciation of the £6 million "Lifetime with Science" investment in the new building and exhibits in 2019/20. Excluding this "non-cash" charge, we returned an operating surplus of £85,080, all of which was applied to new investment in exhibits and solar panels.”

Auditor, going-concern and subsidiary information is drawn from the narrative of the latest annual accounts. About these numbers

Filings

9

last 12 months

Capital events

0

last 24 months

Officers appointed

2

last 12 months

Officers resigned

5

last 12 months

Direct counts from the register. No score, no rating — see the Filing timeline for the underlying events.

• Turnover

  -10.9%

  £410,813 → £365,904

• Cash

  +4.8%

  £291,416 → £305,299

• Net assets

  -11.5%

  £3,655,399 → £3,233,745

• Employees

  -3.2%

  31 → 30

• Wages

  +0.6%

  £541,806 → £545,225

Each % is (latest − prior) ÷ |prior| for the line item as filed. The comparison is only shown when the latest and prior accounts cover broadly equal-length periods — short or long stubs (typical around incorporation or a year-end change) are suppressed rather than misrepresented. Lines a company doesn't report are omitted. About these numbers