Profits rise for restaurant and supermarket chain

SOUTH Dublin supermarket and restaurant chain Donnybrook Fair saw profits increase last year, with growth expected this year.

Pre-tax profits at the business increased slightly from €295,305 to €296,563 according to accounts filed for the year to the end of January 2010.

Gross profit was down slightly from €6.4m to just more than €6m. Operating profit was down from €432,119 to €364,916.

The accounts said that the results for the year were considered satisfactory by the directors who expect growth in the coming year.

The directors did not recommend payment of an ordinary dividend.

Joe and Mary Doyle are listed as directors. Remuneration including pension contributions increased from €40,000 to €40,110 in the year.

At the end of the year there were 130 staff employed at the business, down one of the previous year. Staff costs fell from €3.7m to €3.4m in the year.

The Donnybrook Fair business empire — in its current guise as multi-location upmarket convenience store, with one additional restaurant facility — started in 2002 after its owner Joe Doyle upgraded the standard convenience store on Morehampton Road in Donnybrook.

The upstairs restaurant facility was added to that flagship store in 2004 and in the last three years expansion has come about via two more Donnybrook Fair stores opening on Dublin’s Baggot Street — later doubling in capacity — and in Greystones, Co Wicklow.