Pre-tax profit trebles to €22m at Xilinx Ireland

PRE-TAX profits at the Irish arm of US technology firm Xilinx increased almost threefold to $28m (€22m), new figures show.

According to accounts just filed by Xilinx Ireland to the Companies Office, revenues at the firm increased by 30% from $496.8m to $646.3m in the 12 months to April 2 last year.

According to the directors’ report, “there was a strong recovery in company performance in the year, following a difficult business environment in the prior year”.

The directors state that “the 30% increase in turnover in the year was in part due to new product sales, driven by strong new customer adoption in wide-ranging applications in the communications and industrial markets”.

Xilinx established its Dublin base at the Citywest Business Campus for its European, Middle East and African markets in 1995. Numbers employed there declined from 264 to 207 last year.

The revenues generated by Xilinx Ireland accounted for 27% of the company’s global figure of $2.4bn in fiscal 2011. The Dublin unit has paid out over $2bn in dividends to its US parent since 1999, but last year no dividend was paid.

The directors state that “as a result of the strong performance in the year, employment levels were consistent, averaging 207 employees throughout the year. The directors are very pleased with the significant increase in turnover and the strong performance of the company in its key markets in the current year.”

The company’s pre-tax profits increased from $10.5m to $28m.

The figures show that the company’s accumulated profits at April 2 last stood at $170.2m. Profits last year take account of non-cash depreciation costs of $4.1m.

The company’s cost of sales for the year increased from $415.7m to $542.4m, with net operating expenses increasing from $70.7m to $75.9m.

The cut in the numbers employed resulted in staff costs declining from $37.6m to $29m. Analysis of the staff duties show that 58 were engaged in engineering services; 47 in information technology; 47 in R&D; 22 in administration; 22 in manufacturing and 11 in sales and marketing.

The figures show that remuneration for directors last year dropped from $1.143m to $949,583.

Xilinx’s headquarters are in San Jose, California. It employs 3,000 worldwide.