STEWART Day believes Bury’s finances are on the up after the latest accounts revealed a reduction in operating losses to £2.5million for the year 2015/16.

Although the Shakers ran at a loss of £210,000 per month from June 2015 to May 2016, the figures are less than the £2.9 million loss in 2014/15.

The chairman says investing in the youth team and other facilities had caused a “peak” in losses during the 2014/15 season, but now the club was striving towards “break-even” mark.

“It shows we are turning things around,” Day told Bury Times. “When I took over the club it was running on a huge loss.

“We didn’t have to pay a huge amount of money to buy the football club because of the position it was in, but we knew we had to invest in the future and that’s what we have done since we took over.

“We have spent a lot of money investing in Carrington, the youth team set-up and our non-footballing revenue.

“When the losses come out for the current financial year we expect the losses to be reduced further.”

While the club runs at a loss, the amount owed to creditors was reduced from £5.1 million to £4.3 million.

In turn, the share-value increased significantly, from £4.2 million to £7.2 million – a correlation which has seen Day write off some of the outstanding debt owed to himself.

“The majority of the loans are to my self as well,” Day explained. “I have already written off loan money and turned them into shares.

“When I took over the club, it owed more than £2 million to trade creditors. We now owe less than a third of that, which is very good for a club of our size. Not many clubs make a profit but we are doing our best to reach the break-even point and to become self-sustainable.”

Meanwhile, staff costs increased by £1 million to £4.2 million for the Shakers’ first year back in League One – with the rise in wage budget the main cause as Bury finished 16th in the table.

Day added: “There will be promotion bonuses in there, wage increases, both staff and players, and also larger wages spent on increasing the quality of the squad to compete in League One.”