Irish sports firm hopes to tap World Cup

Support in Sport, the Irish firm that provides sports pitches around the world, hopes to benefit from the World Cup finals next year.

New accounts filed by the company’s UK arm show revenues at the Support in Sport Group Ltd climbed 38% to £25m (€27.8m) last year.

However, pre-tax profits at the company, which has its head offices in Sligo, fell 25% to £1.18m, as the cost of sales and administrative expenses increased significantly.

The firm generates most of its sales in the UK.

The company designs and instals pitches for many high-profile clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea and European rugby champions, Saracens.

Its clients also include the Rugby Football Union in England, the English Football Association, and it also provides pitches for the 2018 World Cup Finals in Russia, the Africa Cup of Nations, the European Champions League and Six Nations Rugby.

On the company’s future developments, the directors state that the group believes that it can continue to benefit from the momentum that has built over the past years and 2016 to drive growth forward in 2017.

Staff numbers rose from 70 to 90, and staff costs increased to £2.86m. Pay for directors rose from £165,049 to £189,218.

The directors said that they have “targeted further increase in turnover and profit for the current year”.

Shareholder funds at the end of last December totalled £3.9m while the company’s cashpile almost doubled to £1m.

Last year’s profit takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of £340,763.