Royal Welsh Show profits defy weather

Royal Welsh Show bosses today revealed it had made a profit of £390,000 despite last year's bad weather.

Organisers of the event in Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, said its success and that of its sister events - the Winter Fair and the Smallholder and Garden Festival - had helped make a total surplus of £639,397.

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society is spending thousands of pounds developing the showground, and a new £1.7 million food hall will open in July. The main ring will also be resurfaced after it turned to mud in 2009.

David Lewis, chairman of the board of management, said: "We are a major player in the premier league of agricultural shows attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year to Llanelwedd and if we are to maintain this position investment in the showground, our chief asset, is essential. That is why substantial surpluses like those for 2009 are key to our future success."

Mr Lewis said none of the major developments could have been possible without the help of the feature counties, a concept introduced by Radnorshire in 1963.

He said: "Unique to the Royal Welsh, it has created a family connection between all the counties and a unity throughout Wales which is reflected in the show itself and which has helped to make it the national institution it has now become, one in which all the counties have an equal stake."