Chester Zoo: who owns it, who runs it and what the accounts show
North of England Zoological Society (The) has no person with significant control recorded on the Companies House register. In the year to December 2024 it reported turnover of £63m.
Chester Zoo has filed accounts for the year to 31 December 2025 at Companies House. Those figures are not yet in Spark Intel's data, so this page shows the previous year, to 31 December 2024. It will update when they are.
- Registered name
- NORTH OF ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (THE)
- Company number
- 00287902
- Status
- Active
- Incorporated
- 9 May 1934
- Registered office area
- Chester
- Industry code on the register
- 91040: Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities
- Accounts
- Group accounts, covering the companies it owns
- Latest accounts
- Year to December 2024, filed 3 July 2025
What does Chester Zoo do?
The North of England Zoological Society is the conservation charity that runs Chester Zoo. The zoo was opened by the Mottershead family in 1931 and houses animals from hundreds of species across a large site in Cheshire. The charity earns income from admission tickets, memberships, on-site accommodation, events and education programmes, and spends it on conservation breeding and field projects in the UK and overseas.
In brief: zoo charity · conservation breeding · tickets and memberships
Source: Chester Zoo's own website, retrieved 27 September 2026.
Who owns Chester Zoo?
North of England Zoological Society (The), company number 00287902, has no person with significant control recorded on the register. The full record is linked below.
The full ownership record is on the Companies House register. Control is given in the bands the register uses, not as exact shareholdings.
Who runs Chester Zoo?
The Companies House register lists 17 current officers for North of England Zoological Society (The).
All 17 current officers
| Officer | Appointed |
|---|---|
| Malcolm Stephen Ardron | 24 November 2006 |
| Aarco Services Limited | 1 May 2014 |
| Simon Peter Venables | 24 June 2014 |
| Professor Richard Alun Griffiths | 6 November 2015 |
| Lee Rawlinson | 25 June 2019 |
| Professor Rhys Edward Green | 4 March 2022 |
| David Wootton | 4 March 2022 |
| Dr Romain Pizzi | 8 July 2022 |
| Neill Jonathan Skinner | 15 June 2023 |
| Dr Simon Cripps | 15 June 2023 |
| Yvonne Emmett Cannell | 15 June 2023 |
| Gareth Edward Thomas | 5 July 2024 |
| Dr Vikas Sagar Shah | 5 July 2024 |
| Dr Stephanie Wray | 6 June 2025 |
| Tina Elizabeth Mitchell | 6 March 2026 |
| Jacob Samuel Thompson | 5 June 2026 |
| Emma Jane Degg | 5 June 2026 |
Every current officer, with appointment dates, is on the Companies House register.
What did Chester Zoo file?
North of England Zoological Society (The) reported turnover of £63m in the year to December 2024. That was up 10.0% on £57m the year before.
It reported 664 employees. The year before it reported 661.
It filed a pre-tax profit of £2m for the year, against a pre-tax loss of £0.3m the year before.
Staff costs came to £26m. That is an average of £39,000 a head. It ended the year with £5m at the bank and net assets of £66m.
| Measure | Dec 2024 | Dec 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £63m | £57m |
| Pre-tax profit | £2m (filed) | -£0.3m (filed) |
| Employees | 664 | 661 |
| Staff costs | £26m | £24m |
| Average staff cost per head | £39,000 | £36,000 |
| Bank and cash | £5m | £5m |
| Net assets | £66m | £64m |
Read the accounts to December 2024 on Companies House, where every set of accounts the company has filed can be downloaded as a PDF.
Are there any charges against Chester Zoo?
North of England Zoological Society (The) has registered 25 charges at Companies House, of which 2 are still outstanding. A charge is security a lender takes over a company's assets; one is satisfied when the lending behind it is repaid or released.
Both outstanding charges
| Charge holder | Created |
|---|---|
| Barclays Bank PLC | 2 April 1982 |
| Barclays Bank PLC | 2 April 1982 |
Each charge, with its holder and dates, is on the Companies House register.
How Chester Zoo compares
Chester Zoo files as North of England Zoological Society (The), with turnover of £63m in its latest filed year.
Questions about Chester Zoo
What does Chester Zoo do?
The North of England Zoological Society is the conservation charity that runs Chester Zoo. The zoo was opened by the Mottershead family in 1931 and houses animals from hundreds of species across a large site in Cheshire. The charity earns income from admission tickets, memberships, on-site accommodation, events and education programmes, and spends it on conservation breeding and field projects in the UK and overseas.
Who owns Chester Zoo?
North of England Zoological Society (The) has no person with significant control recorded at Companies House.
How much does Chester Zoo make?
North of England Zoological Society (The) reported turnover of £63m in the year to December 2024. It filed a pre-tax profit of £2m.
How many people work at Chester Zoo?
North of England Zoological Society (The) reported 664 employees in the year to December 2024.
Who runs Chester Zoo?
The Companies House register lists 17 current officers for North of England Zoological Society (The). The full list, with appointment dates, is on the Companies House register.
- Figures come from North of England Zoological Society (The)'s filings at Companies House, company number 00287902, for the period shown at the top of the page.
- These are group accounts: they include the companies it owns.
- Pre-tax profit is the figure the company filed, for both years.
- A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d. A zero in the filing is treated as not disclosed, never as nil.
- Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, from £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, from £2m to the nearest million.
- Ownership is shown in the control bands the register of people with significant control uses, not as exact shareholdings.
- Officers' names and appointment dates come from the Companies House register. Job titles come from the company's own website. The description of what the company does comes from its website, or is marked Spark Intel editorial where it is written from stable, checked facts, with the date either way.
Spark Intel, “Chester Zoo: who owns it, who runs it and what the accounts show”, updated 28 September 2026. https://www.spark-intel.co.uk/companies/chester-zoo/. Figures from Companies House filings for NORTH OF ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (THE) (00287902).
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