One of the country's largest waste management firms, Thorntons Recycling last year received a €12.1 million insurance payout arising from "a serious fire" at the group’s Killeen Rd facility in Dublin 12.
In January 2021, the firm’s Ballyfermot facility went on fire and the facility re-opened in November last year "following significant investment".
New accounts for Padraig Thornton Waste Disposal Ltd and subsidiaries show that the group last year received €6.8 million in insurance compensation from the damage caused by the fire and an additional €5.3 million from a business interruption claim arising from the fire.
The insurance pay-out contributed to the group pre-tax profits increasing by 56% to €8.7 million last year.
This followed revenues increasing by 7% from €86.32 million to €92.28 million.
The family owned business serves 70,000 customers each day and the €12.1 million in exceptional income from the two insurance claims was offset by the firm writing off the €4.1 million book value of the Killeen Rd land and buildings which increased the group’s administrative expenses from €9.95 million to €15.4 million.
The directors, Shane and Paul Thornton said that the new Killeen Rd plant "is more efficient and sustainable than the previous facility and should improve overall recycling and recovery rates of materials processed".
In their report, the Thorntons said that normalised pre-tax profits of €6 million was achieved for the year.
The directors said that the business was able to achieve the 7% sales growth despite the impact of Covid-19 and the Killeen Rd fire.
They said that this was mainly achieved through organic growth in its domestic and skip hire business and the acquisition of the Rathcoole based Skip Trans business in 2021.
The pre-tax profit last year takes account of combined non-cash depreciation and amortisation charges of €7.27 million.
Numbers employed by the group last year increased by 43 from 459 to 502 as staff costs increased from €21.93 million to €23.4 million.
Pay to key management personnel last year increased from €566,121 to €604,345.
The business recorded post tax profits of €7.44 million after paying corporation tax of €1.27 million.
On the business's future developments, the directors state that Thorntons will continue to look at ways of reducing the volumes of waste going to landfill and to improve on its current group recycling rate of over 90%.
They state: "We will continue to focus on growing market share through organic growth and acquisition."
At the end of December last, the group had shareholder funds of €50.79 million that included accumulated profits of €45.28m.
As part of the firm's ongoing expansion, the group last year spent €25.67m on the purchase of assets and this followed a spend of €13.7m under that heading in 2020.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
