Hotel group’s losses fall to €1m

Losses at the hotel and pub group that owns Blooms Hotel and the Oliver St John Gogarty pub in Dublin’s Temple Bar narrowed last year to €1m.

Accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office by Martin Keane’s Drayton House Ltd show that total losses decreased sharply from €10.5m to €1.1m in the 12 months to the end of February last year.

The losses at the firm narrowed after revenues at the company decreased from €12.3m to €10.7m.

According to the directors’ report, the group’s revenues fell by 13% “due to the decreased level of customer spending as a result of the recession which has dramatically affected the licensed trade and tourism industry”.

The report continues: “In common with many other businesses, we expect our turnover and gross margin to improve as the general economy recovers.”

The narrowing of the group’s losses mainly arose from property write-downs reducing from €7.9m to €2.5m last year.

The group made an operating profit of €1.6m compared to €2.2m in fiscal 2010.

The numbers employed by the group last year reduced from 128 to 118, with employment costs declining from €3.3m to €2.9m.

Remuneration for directors last year declined from €203,780 to €77,816.

The returns show contrasting performances in the group’s subsidiaries for 2011: Slattery Ltd, which owns Oliver St John Gogarty’s, recorded a profit of €1m; with hotel company Blooms Leisure Ltd recording a profit of €104,569.

However, property firm, Jacglen Ltd recorded a loss of €2.1m with property investment firm, Redcaps Development Ltd recording a loss of €289,591.

The group’s cash reduced from €67,379 to €40,983.

The group recorded a pre-tax loss of €966,642 and a tax bill of €225,538 resulted in the after-tax loss of €1.19m.