Perth Museum has welcomed more than 200,000 visitors in the eight months since it opened, say bosses.
Culture Perth and Kinross has revealed around a third of those visits – 60,800 – were to the venue’s Stone cafe.
But the controversial eatery is still running at a loss.
It comes after Perth and Kinross Council handed the museum £230,000 in February to cover the cafe’s start-up costs.
The position emerged in a briefing to councillors on Wednesday.
Culture Perth and Kinross chief Helen Smout told the scrutiny and performance committee: “As of yesterday, we were at just over 205,000 visits to Perth Museum.”
She said the venue was delighted to have secured a number of key travel trade contracts which would keep it busy over the winter and into 2025 and 2026.
Quizzed on the cafe’s trading performance by Labour councillor Alasdair Bailey, Ms Smout acknowledged it had yet to turn a profit.
“Trading has been very brisk,” she said.
“But our overheads have been quite high at the start of the year.
“We have had to have some additional staff, and we have had a lot of new business strain. We have had to buy a lot of extra equipment and things like that.
“In terms of profitability we are still working towards getting to the break even point with the cafe, which we hope to do by the end of the year,” she added.
Ms Smout said this timescale was in keeping with what Culture Perth and Kinross had predicted, adding: “We are working very hard to make sure the cafe is working hard for us.”
Perth Museum cafe branded ‘state-funded competitor’ to local businesses
There was controversy in February when the council agreed to hand over £230,000 to prop up the museum cafe.
The award came just seven weeks before the £27 million attraction was due to open in the refurbished Perth City Hall.
And it followed two failed bids to find an external operator to run the cafe on behalf of Culture Perth and Kinross.
At the time, the public was told £60,000 was needed to pay for fixtures and fittings.
Another £170,000 was requested to meet the operating costs until September 30 this year.
The understanding was that the money would be repaid from future revenues.
Critics said the handout was creating unfair competition for existing businesses in Perth’s Cafe Quarter.
They included Councillor Bailey, who branded it “a state-funded competitor to privately-owned local eateries”.
How has museum impacted Perth?
Businesses in the Cafe Quarter previously told The Courier they have seen a boost in trade since the museum opened in March.
However, some questioned how much busier they might have been if they were not competing with the museum cafe.
Businesses elsewhere in the city have also said they have not seen an increase in trade.
The museum itself is free to enter.
Project leaders forecast the new home of the Stone of Destiny would boost the local economy by £2.5m a year.
The original target was 167,000 visits in the first 12 months.
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