Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud blames higher overheads for a slump in post-tax profits 

The annual return shows Mr Guilbaud no longer has a controlling stake in Becklock after transferring almost half of his share to his son, Charles, who is part of the management team.

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, one of the country’s most celebrated eateries, has blamed higher overheads for a 51% slump in post-tax profits to €167,554 last year.

In an interview, the eponymous owner Mr Guilbaud said: “2023 was a tough year because of the increase in overheads."

New accounts filed by Mr Guilbaud’s Becklock for the 12 months to the end of August show the post-tax profit of €167,554 followed post-tax profits of €344,600 for the prior year.

When asked to comment on the decline in profits for last year, Mr Guilbaud said: “That is for sure. Everything is more expensive and we can’t pass everything on to the customer so the margin is smaller.” 

Mr Guilbaud said the business — housed in the five-star Merrion hotel in Dublin — could not afford to pass on the additional costs to the customer “as I do not want to lose my customer base”.

He said: “They have been good to us for the last 40 years plus and I want to carry on.” 

Mr Guilbaud said costs would be passed slowly to customers in the years to come.

The lunch menu at the two Michelin star Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud costs €95 per person while a la carte ranges from €120 to €170, with the eight course tasting menu costing €260 per person.

However, Mr Guildbaud said compared to two-star Michelin restaurants in places like Paris and New York City, “we are quite inexpensive”.

He said two-star Michelin restaurants in those cities would be 25% more expensive.

Mr Guilbaud said the restaurant continued to strive for the third Michelin star. He said: “We do the best we can every day.” 

On business in the current year, Mr Guilbaud said “business is good. We are full all the time apart from early in the week.”

“Overall it is good, but we have to manage our overheads a bit better.” 

“The customer is the most important person in our business — if we don’t have customers we don’t have a business," Mr Guilbaud added.

The annual return show Mr Guilbaud no longer has a controlling stake in Becklock after transferring almost half of his share to his son, Charles, who is part of the management team.

Charles now has a 24% share in the business as a result and asked to comment Mr Guilbaud said: “We try slowly to make sure that we have continuity in the business and it is so far so good.” 

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €277,440.

At the end of August last, Becklock’s accumulated profits totalled €2.39m.

Staff costs increased from €1.63m to €1.7m as numbers employed increased by two to 38.