€900,000 pension payment hits Drayton profits

Profits at the group that owns the Oliver St John Gogarty pub and Blooms Hotel in Dublin’s Temple Bar were hit last year after the group’s three directors paid themselves €900,000 in pension contributions.

The Martin Keane-controlled Drayton House Holdings Ltd operates the well-known Dublin pub, and new figures show that pre-tax profits at the group reduced by 54% to €1.7m in spite of a jump in revenues.

Every year, tens of thousands of tourists descend on the Oliver St John Gogarty pub and new figures for Drayton show that the pub contributed to revenues increasing by 7% from €11.45m to €12.23m at the group in the 12 months to the end of February last.

The group also operates Blooms Hotel, which contains the Club M nightclub, and Mr Keane last week announced a €15m revamp of the disused Iveagh Markets in Dublin that includes the development of a 90-bedroom hotel.

The directors of the firm are listed as Martin Keane, Vera Keane and Martina Keane and the new accounts show that the profits took a hit after the directors paid themselves pension payments of €900,000 after no pension contributions were made in fiscal 2013.

The firm’s 2013 accounts show that the group’s profits were boosted by an exceptional gain of €1.45m arising from a revaluation of the 100 bedroom Blooms Hotel, increasing from €8.5m to €10m and no similar gain was made last year.

The numbers employed by the group last year decreased from 105 to 104 with staff costs increasing from €2.54m to €3.67m.