Bloodstock business Goffs has this year recorded the highest ever pre-tax profits of €4.45m on the trading of thoroughbred horses in its 156 year history.
In his report, the group CEO at Goffs, Henry Beeby, stated that the company recorded its highest ever ring turnover of €181m, which he said "represents a 71% bounce" on the previous year.
The pre-tax profits of €4.45m in the 12 months to the end of March this year are a 272% increase on the €1.19m pre-tax profit for fiscal 2021.
Mr Beeby said that the bare statistics for Goffs to the year of March this year "make for very happy reading".
He described the year as "remarkable as the company, along with the world, bounced back from the awful global pandemic that had blighted every corner of the world".
The record bloodstock profits and ring turnover for the 12 months to the end of March 2022 represent a significant turnaround in Goffs' fortunes after the prior year was described as "the most challenging" in the business's history due to Covid-19.
In the year to the end of March 2021, ring turnover had plunged by 39% or €69m.
Goffs' Orby sale is usually its biggest earning sale of the year and during 2020, Goffs relocated the sale to Doncaster in England due to issues of overseas buyers arriving into Ireland.
In his new 2022 report, Mr Beeby said that "it is no secret that it was little short of disastrous when we moved it to Doncaster and I have been very clear in accepting that it was the wrong call at the time".
"However, Orby 2021 was back where it belonged at the top table of European yearling sales and with seven figure top prices, a six figure average and a stunning 91% clearance," he stated.
"Irish breeders got behind us and gave us another chance and for that I will always be grateful," he added.
In her report, Goffs chairwoman Eimear Mulhern stated that the market remained surprisingly buoyant through the challenging period of the last two years "and the Goffs team, led by CEO Henry Beeby, delivered a superb set of results".
Ms Mulhern stated that in view of the group's "very positive financial performance" the board is proposing a dividend of 17 cent per share - which is more than five times the 3 cent per share dividend proposed and paid in fiscal 2021.
The 3 cent per share dividend for fiscal 2021 equated to a dividend payout of €199,744.
Today's figures show that staff costs increased from €4.3m to €5.08m as numbers employed remained at the same level at 81.
The staff costs include pay to directors which this year decreased from €1.08m to €1.3m.
Pay to key management personnel this year increased €2.79m to €2.9m.
At the end of March last, Goffs had shareholder funds totalling €37m that included accumulated profits of €21.75m.
The firm's cash funds increased from €11.62m to €12.11m.
Reporting by Gordon Deeegan
