The company behind two of the best known retail names in Ireland, Brown Thomas and Arnotts has this year returned to profit to record pre-tax profits of €8.94 million.
New accounts for Brown Thomas Arnotts Ltd show that the group returned to profit after revenues increased by €95.8 million or 61% from €157.8 million to €253.6 million in the 12 months to the end of January 29th this year.
The pre-tax profits of €8.9 million followed a rare pre-tax loss of €1.77 million in the prior year.
The business returned to profit this year after its 'bricks and mortar' retail stores were closed for the only the first 14 weeks or 27% of the financial year due to Covid-19 restrictions compared to being shut for 40 per cent of the prior year when digital trading was the group’s only source of revenue during the closed periods.
The accounts reveal that the business received €8.3 million in Government Covid-19 Wage Subsidy support payments during the year and this followed €6.1 million in Covid-19 Wage subsidy payments in fiscal 2021.
The directors report that a dividend of €300,000 was paid out in July 2021 and a further dividend of €800,000 was paid by the directors on May 20th of this year.
Brown Thomas Arnotts, which operates the stores in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, was sold as part of the sale of the Selfridges group to Thai-headquartered Central Group and Austrian Signa Holding last December in a deal worth a reported €4.7 billion.
The directors for Brown Thomas Arnotts state that "future growth is planned by continued investment in the stores and increased investment in digital including the expansion into a larger store in Dundrum".
They state that Dundrum successfully opened on February 24th this year.
The directors state that despite challenges, the company is set up "for a long, profitable, and sustainable future".
They said that "the digital business continued to operate and grew significantly during this period".
The directors state that "during the pandemic, management took decisive action to provide financial resilience and further flexibility to manage the uncertainty in light of the adverse impact on liquidity and profitability".
Numbers employed in the year under review increased by 188 from 1,104 to 1,292 made up of 701 part-time and 591 full time.
Staff costs this year increased by €12.2 million from €34.85 million to €47.1 million.
The profit this year takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation costs of €17.2 million.
A breakdown of revenues show that €219.69m was recorded in retail sales and €33.97m from concession income.
At the end of January this year, the group had shareholder funds of €114.94 million that included accumulated profits of €65.43 million.
The group's cash funds increased from €52.82 million to €64.15 million.
