Coillte profits slide to €4m

STATE-OWNED Coillte, a forestry and renewable energy company, has reported a profit of €4.2 million for 2009, down from €9.2m in 2008.

The company reported a profit even though its management expressed concerns that it could record a loss for last year. The company made a profit of just over €40m in 2007.

Chief executive David Gunning called 2009 “a challenging year“, with price and margin pressures evident in all our businesses”. He said: “In response, we took decisive action, working with our sawmill customers to increase their exports to Britain; we boosted sales of our panel products, also into the UK; we reduced our operating costs by €24m and we refinanced our business.”

Mr Gunning said 2010 will also be another challenging year.

“The group will take further action to ensure the financial stability of the business, while also making targeted capital investments in our forest, panel products, land and renewable energy businesses; where we feel there is potential to create future value,” he said.

Coillte’s turnover last year amounted to €206.9m, down from €249m in the previous year. However, the company still saw an increase in the sale of timber and panel products to Britain, despite difficult trading conditions.

Coillte said it also made “significant progress” in relation to its strategic objective to add value to its land assets during the year.

This included the sale of its Knockacummer wind farm in Cork. Progress was also made on its first joint-venture wind farm project, with Hibernian Wind Power, at Garvagh Glebe in Leitrim.

Coillte also grew its telecommunications mast business, working with telecoms provider 3 on the roll-out of the National Broadband Scheme. The company is also investing €4m in building 100 mast sites, as part of this project. A third of those sites were completed last year.