Pre-tax profit falls at Dornan

ENGINEERING firm Dornan saw pre-tax profits fall slightly last year despite a significant rise in turnover.

Pre-tax profits fell from €1.6 million to €1.4m, according to filed accounts for Dornan Engineering Ltd and Subsidiaries for 2010.

The main activities of the Cork-headquartered business include mech-anical, electrical and instrumentation contracting in Ireland and abroad.

The company said new contracts commenced in late 2009 and had a significant beneficial effect on the levels of turnover and gross profit in 2010.

It said substantial inc-reases in overseas overhead costs and the impact of non-Irish corporation tax rates resulted in a reduction in post-tax profits.

According to the accounts. the directors will continue to actively purchase and bid for new contracts and are hopeful that profit and cash-flow levels can be maintained in the current year.

But the group is subject to the same economic uncertainties confronting all businesses, they said.

“The directors continually take steps to identify, manage and mitigate business risk in the best manner possible,” the accounts read.

Turnover in the year was up from €50.7m to almost €72m. Staff numbers increased from 324 to 359, and staff costs increasing from €17.8m to €18.8m.

Directors’ remuneration was €1,198,157 last year, up from €537,309 in the previous year.

Pension contributions for directors totalled €458,872 last year, up from €254,076.

Dornan Engineering is headquartered in Little Island. Last year managing director Oliver Lonergan said that the company was fortunate to have positioned itself in markets outside of Ireland in advance of the downturn and is enjoying “considerable growth” there, with offices in London, Manchester, Dusseldorf, Antwerp and Stockholm.

Dornan provides engineering services to firms, with the majority of its employees Irish nationals.

Contracts in Ireland include a fit-out project at Google’s Dublin campus and a major manufacturing expansion project for EMC in Cork.