Parknasilla has ‘terrific year’ as revenues hit €5m
Tony Daly, managing director of Parknasilla, also said yesterday that “2014 was excellent for the hotel. We are thrilled with the progress being made here.”
Mr Daly said the hotel continued to be loss-making last year due to a five-year investment programme that will see €2m invested to 2017.
He said that, arising from the business ploughing back money into the 120-year-old hotel, the company will not return a pre-tax profit until 2017.“We’re not in this for the short term and we will continually improve the product by reinvesting,” he said.
Mr Daly said €400,000 was invested in the resort in 2013, and this was followed by €450,000 last year.
He was commenting on accounts by Silork Ltd that show the business recorded losses of €177,470 in 2013.
The figures recently lodged to the Companies Office show that the business recorded the loss as the firm recorded gross profits of €4m in its first year of operation.
Parknasilla Resort and Spa in Sneem was bought in December 2012 for €11m by a consortium of investors led by Kenmare businessman Mr Daly and Swiss financier Jacquie Safra, who has owned neighbouring Garinish Island since the 1990s.
This was a fraction of the €40m paid for the hotel in 2006 by property developer Bernard McNamara, who spent an additional €10m upgrading the facilities before the Bank of Scotland appointed a receiver to the business in February 2012.
Mr Daly said occupancy levels last year increased 39%, with a 15% rise in occupancy across the resort that includes villas and lodges.
“We don’t believe that the growth in the business will be as strong this year, and we are projecting a 6% increase,” he said.
Mr Daly said the costs in the upkeep of the resort are significant, pointing out 139 trees were felled in one day by a major storm last year.
The business, set on 500 acres, employs 110 during the summer months.
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