Profits at Casey-owned publishing firm shrink 76%

Pre-tax profits at the publishing group owned by former RTÉ Dragons’ Den judge and current Newstalk presenter Norah Casey decreased by 76% to €78,121 in 2011.

Ms Casey’s Harmonia Ltd, which publishes Irish Tatler, Woman’s Way, U Magazine and Food & Wine, sustained the drop in profits after revenues dipped from €6.3m to €6.1m in the 12 months to the end of Dec 2011.

Finance director with the firm, Michael Fitzpatrick, said yesterday that the company is “very happy” with the 2011 performance “taking into account the difficult personal circumstances at Harmonia and the general state of the market”.

Ms Casey’s late husband and editorial director of Harmonia, Richard Hannaford died aged 49 in Oct 2011 after an illness.

Ms Casey — who currently co-presents Newstalk’s Breakfast programme — took time off from her role at Harmonia to care for Mr Hannaford and Mr Fitzpatrick said: “There was no one here that was not affected by Richard’s illness.”

Mr Fitzpatrick pointed out that during 2011, a number of Harmonia titles increased circulation and Audited Bureau Circulation (ABC) figures confirm that Irish Tatler increased from 23,536 to 23,919 with Woman’s Way increasing from 22,197 to 22,488.

The figures show that U magazine’s circulation dropped from 27,564 to 25,241.

Prior to his death, Mr Hannaford oversaw the launch of new brands such as Tatler Man and ABC figures show a circulation of 10,595 in 2011.

The directors’ report states that Harmonia “has performed extremely well and has increased revenues in the current year”.

Mr Fitzpatrick confirmed that the group “increased revenues slightly in 2012 and we will show a modest profit similar to the modest profit we had in 2011”.

The profit recorded last year follows a pre-tax profit of €331,571 in 2010.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that the company is in good financial health and looking ahead to 2013 with optimism. He said that Irish Tatler’s latest edition, backed by strong advertising and editorial, had 244 pages “the largest amount in six years”.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that the ABC circulation figures for 2012 will not be published until February “but we are happy with how the titles performed last year”.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that the firm will be looking to significantly increase its contract publishing business in 2013.

The finance director added that Ms Casey is “combining well” her work for Harmonia and Newstalk.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that higher cost of paper and print affected profits in 2011.

Directors’ remuneration increasing by 30% from €185,288 to €240,694 also reduced profits.

The profit last year takes account of combined non-cash cost of depreciation and amortisation totalling €139,324.

The firm had shareholder funds totalling €1.3m, with accumulated profits totalling €1.17m. The company’s cash decreased marginally from €289,325 to €285,495.

The numbers employed by the company remained static at 41 and employment costs — including directors’ salaries — increased from €1.5m to €1.68m in 2011.