The Porterhouse pub group has recorded "enormous drops in revenue and profit" over the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
That is according to Eliot Hughes of the Porterhouse Group who was commenting on new group accounts showing that the group recorded operating profits of €790,023 before Covid 19 shut down the business for much of the past year.
New accounts for Wavecrest Inn Ltd show that the operating profits decreased by 21% to €790,023 in the 12 months to the end of February last year.
The group sustained the drop in operating profit after revenues decreased by 6pc from €31.65m to €29.74m.
Numbers employed across the group last year increased from 247 to 285 as staff costs declined from €9.3m to €8.7m.
The group recorded a pre-tax profit of €140,440 after a pre-tax loss of €2m in 2019 due mainly to a non-cash €2.1m write down.
The 2020 profit took account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.23m.
"We have seen enormous drops in revenue and profit over the past year due to Covid-19. This has been a hugely significant drain on our business, like many others in the hospitality sector in Ireland," said Business Development Director with the Porterhouse Group, Mr Hughes.
"We hope that this year, once reopened, will see us bounce back," he said.
Mr Hughes said that the group lost 10% of its workforce to other sectors during the pandemic to date.
The accounts cover the Porterhouse Bars in Dublin and London and the Port House restaurants in Dublin and London, while it also covers the group's brewery and distribution businesses.
The revenues for the Irish operation last year totalled €22m while UK revenues totalled €7.7m while €23.85m of revenues were generated from 'drink' and €5.89m from food.
On the year to the end of February 2020 pre Covid, Mr Hughes said they were happy with how the majority of group performed overall over the year.
He said that 2019-20 financial year was a challenging year for certain elements as one of the group's main premises formerly Lillies, Lost Lane reopened with significant investment.
"Outside of this our other businesses performed well and Lost Lane performed well when opened," he said.
Mr Hughes stated that the groups bar and restaurant in England are now open for indoor dining.
On his hopes for the re-opening here, Mr Hughes said be is hopeful that once reopened indoors they can begin to recover.
"The government need to have the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in place for at least the remainder of the year while we would also like to see support for tenants in the hospitality sector who are unfairly affected by faceless international landlords who care little for the reopening of Irish business," he said.
On the impact on morale over the past 14 months, Mr Hughes said it was tough at the start, with "huge uncertainty," however he said the resilience shown by the team over the last 12 months has been fantastic.
"We are now eager to get back up and running as soon as we can," he said.
Accumulated profits at the group at the end of February 2020 total €16.54m.
