John Paul Construction profits rise to €4.7m

PROFITS at John Paul Construction, one of the largest building firms in the state, rise by almost 8% last year.

Accounts just filed at the Companies Registration Office (CRO) show profits for the year to end December 2004 rose to €4.7 million from €4.3m the previous year.

John Paul Construction reported turnover for the year had risen by 40% to just over €171m. The company did not give any reason for the surge in revenues.

After paying out dividends and interest, the company’s retained profits at the end of last December increased to just over €8m from €4.6m at the beginning of 2004.

The company’s balance sheet showed cash at bank rose by 3m to 21m, with shareholders’ funds increasing to €13.04m.

The number of people employed by the firm rose by 102 to 373. The increase pushed out the wages bill for the year by €7.6m to €20.4m. This gives an annual average salary per employee of almost €55,000.

The company’s five directors shared remuneration of €1.5m, up from €1.1m the previous year.

John Paul Construction was founded more than 50 years ago and remains one of the biggest commercial building and civil engineering contractors in the state. It had built projects such as the school of nursing at Dublin City University and the Independent Newspaper printing plant.

During 2004, JT Paul, one of the company’s founding directors, died.

Separately, accounts for builders G&T Crampton show the firm had profits of almost €8m last year on sales of almost €200m. Its directors shared almost €7.7m in pay and pension contributions.