Operating profit up 29% at Irish arm of Amazon as revenue hits €53.6m

OPERATING profit at the main Irish unit of online retailing giant, Amazon.com increased by 29% last year as revenues climbed sharply to €53.6 million.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Office show that Amazon Data Services Ireland Ltd’s (ADSIL’s) operating profits increased by €722,552 to €3.15m in the 12 months to the end of December 2010. This follows the company’s revenues increasing by 62% — or €20.5m — from €33.1m to €53.6m last year.

Amazon.com operates five data hub facilities in Dublin and at the end of 2010, ADSIL employed 131 people, an increase of 54 on the 2009 figure, supporting the amazon group websites.

Established in 2005, accounts for the company’s European Systems & Network Operations Centre show that the company’s pre-tax profits increased last year by 18% from €1m to €1.2m.

Together with another Amazon.com Irish subsidiary — the Cork-based Amazon CS Ireland Ltd (ACSIL), which provides customer support to the wider group’s subsidiaries — the company employed 462 at the end of December, with ACSIL employing 331.

ADSIL’s pre-tax profits were hit last year by a €12,000 loss made on a disposal of a fixed asset.

Its operating profits were hit by interest payments of €1.88m.

The accounts also show that the company’s staff costs increased by 37% from €6.7m to €9.3m.

Amazon.com is one of a number of US-owned online companies, including Google, eBay, Facebook and Linkedin, to have established operations in Ireland.

The company’s Cork-based ACSIL subsidiary, meanwhile, recorded profits of €378,085, up from €121,123 from the previous year, despite increasing its revenues by 46%, to €18.7m.