The ESPO Management Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss the 2024/25 financial statements, an update from the Chief Officer, and an overview of ESPO's energy offering. Also on the agenda were ESPO's digital marketing and approach to search engine optimisation (SEO). Much of the meeting was expected to be held without press or public present, due to the discussion of commercially sensitive information.

2024/25 Financial Statements and Annual Governance Statement

The ESPO Management Committee was scheduled to consider the 2024/25 financial statements and annual governance statement (AGS). These items had been reviewed by the Finance and Audit Sub Committee at its meeting on 8 October 2025, and were recommended for approval.

The report stated that the external audit resulted in a 'clean' audit opinion, with no significant control weaknesses or accounting differences identified. The trading surplus for 2024/25 was reported as £7.4m, £0.3m higher than budgeted. A dividend of £5.4m was proposed, based on the management accounts.

The report also detailed key areas of judgement within the financial statements:

• Value of pension: The closing position as at 31 March 2025 was an asset of £0k, in alignment with Financial Reporting Standard 102¹. The valuation was based on a third-party valuation by the actuaries Hymans Robertson.
• Value of land and buildings: The Grove Park premises were valued at £24.1m by chartered surveyors. The outstanding loan used to purchase the site was £2.75m.
• Going Concern: A key assumption was that ESPO would continue trading for at least 12 months from the date of signing the financial statements.

The proposed dividend pool for members was £5.4m, with payment expected in December 2025. The AGS was reviewed by a senior management group and no areas of significant concern were identified.

The Management Committee was asked to approve the 2024/25 AGS, the 2024/25 financial statements, and the dividend pool of £5.4m.

The Appendix 1 - 202425 Financial Statements included a statement from Councillor Mohammed Jamil, Chair of ESPO Management Committee 2024/25, who noted the pressures facing schools and public sector customers due to funding constraints, inflation, and cost of living pressures. Despite these challenges, ESPO worked to limit price increases and achieved a surplus of £8.9 million, allowing them to return £5.4 million to member authorities and reinvest in customer pricing and future growth.

The Appendix 2 - 202425 Annual Governance Statement stated that ESPO is responsible for ensuring its business is conducted in accordance with the law and proper standards, and that public money is safeguarded and properly accounted for. ESPO isn't in receipt of public money for the purpose of providing statutory services in the same way as a local authority, rather, ESPO generates its own funds from trading activity.

Chief Officer's Progress Update

The Chief Officer's Progress Update Report provided an overview of actions and progress made since the last update to the Management Committee.

After 6 months, a surplus of £6.8m had been made, which was £0.5m better than budget and £1.1m better than last year. Rebate income from frameworks continued to perform well, benefitting from organic growth and inflation.

The report noted that the educational supplies market had contracted further, with the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) indicating a 3% contraction from January 2025 to September 2025. ESPO's sales volumes were down 3% versus last year, in line with the overall market movement. Costs continued to be tightly controlled, with expenditure of £14.5m better than budget by £1.1m.

Latest guidance for the full year was a trading surplus of £7.5m-£7.7m, up to £0.4m better than budget.

In September, ESPO's distribution centre picked and despatched 172,222 order lines valued at £5.671m. The Customer Services Team handled 5,605 calls, with average wait times of 34 seconds and 94% of calls answered.

The three primary causes of sickness absence during Q2 of 2025/26 were stress, mental health & depression (29.94%), other musculo-skeletal problems (15.02%), and cancer (10.47%).

The Appendix 1 - Balanced Scorecard contained a management summary, customer order KPIs, an operations balanced scorecard and a commercial balanced scorecard.

The Appendix 2 - Risk Review Extract detailed risks to ESPO, including increased competition, Amazon's presence in the public sector, supply chain risks, and IT cyber security threats.

Overview of ESPO's Energy Offering

The ESPO Head of Commercial was scheduled to provide an overview of ESPO's energy offering. No further details of what this entailed were provided in the agenda.

ESPO's Digital Marketing and Approach to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The ESPO Head of Marketing was scheduled to present ESPO's digital marketing and approach to search engine optimisation (SEO). No further details of what this entailed were provided in the agenda.