The shortened GAA championship season last year had a negative impact on sales of O'Neill’s replica jerseys as pre-tax profits at the main company behind the O’Neill’s brand here declined by 18% to €1.3m.
Higher costs at the Dublin based Balbriggan Textiles Ltd also contributed to the decrease in pre-tax profits as the company’s gross profit increased by 6% from €11.09m to €11.74m.
Director with the company, Paul Towell stated today that "2018 was a challenging year for us on a number of fronts with the uncertainty around Brexit".
Mr Towell stated that one of the challenges faced by O’Neill’s last year was the GAA shortening the championship season by three weeks "which reduced the time both for producing and selling replica jerseys".
He said: "It also shortened the lead in time to generate interest around the finals and coincided with the end of school holidays all of which had a negative effect on sales."
The biggest replica jersey sellers last year were the All-Ireland winners, Limerick and Dublin.
He stated: "Limerick jerseys have continued to sell well in 2019 after a new jersey was launched following their All-Ireland success."
Mr Towell stated that the highlight for O’Neills last year was the opening of two new retail outlets, one in Derry and one in Craigavon which incurred significant associated costs.
Separate accounts by O’Neill’s Northern Ireland (NI) arm, O’Neill’s Irish International Sports Company Ltd show that the opening of the new outlets contributed to pre-tax profits increasing marginally from £1.064m.
The followed the gross profit at the company increasing by 20% from £5.9m to £7m. Mr Towell said that the overall O'Neill's business "is performing well this year".
He said: "We acquired a shirt factory in Derry, 'Smyth & Gibson’ which was closing down. We were anxious to retain the skilled workforce involved. This coincided with the opening of our new retail outlet in Derry and our commitment to that part of our country."
On the impact of Brexit, Mr Towell said: "The impact of Brexit has of course created uncertainty as we have manufacturing plants on both sides of the border and our trucks cross the border daily.
He stated: "Approximately 30% of our 800 staff in Strabane live in the Republic and cross the border daily. We are anxiously waiting the outcome of this week’s election in the UK."
Numbers employed by Balbriggan Textiles Ltd last year totalled 171 as staff costs totalled €5.7m. Shareholder funds at the Dublin company last year €18.74m. The company’s cash pile reduced from €6.39m to €3.2m.
Separate accounts for the NI company show that numbers employed increased from 559 to 632 as staff costs increased from £11.84m to £13.29m.
Shareholder funds totalled £10.7m and the company’s cash pile increased more than four fold from £993,748 to £4.8m.
