Profits almost double at National Ploughing Championship firm 

A large crowd at the third day of the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co Laois. Picture: Dan Linehan

Pre-tax profits almost doubled to €426,883 last year at the firm which operates the National Ploughing Championships.

New accounts show that the National Ploughing Association of Ireland recorded the surge in profits as revenues decreased by 9% from €6.76m to €6.14m in the 12 months to the end of January 2024.

The pre-tax profits of €426,883 last year follow pre-tax profits of €217,624 in the prior year.

At the end of January 2024, the not-for-profit National Ploughing Association of Ireland was sitting on accumulated profits of €11.94m.

In September of last year, 244,000 attended the ploughing event at Ratheniska, Co Laois, representing a 22% increase on the 200,500 who attended the event in 2023.

The profits of the past two years follow combined losses of €1.25m during the two covid-19 impacted years of 2021 and 2020.

The accounts show that profits were boosted during the year by €894,751 from the sale of investments while profits also increased due to a €509,675 increase in value of investments.

The association’s assistant managing director, Anna Marie McHugh, said that the group made an underlying operating loss in 2023 and the singular factor in the pre-tax profit was investments.

The group’s cost base increased from €6.48m to €7.12m during the year.

Ms McHugh said that figures for the current year are not available, but commented that the 2024 championships “was one of the best ‘ploughing’ events in years in terms of exhibitor sales, attendance figures national and international, weather, and general business being done”.

The company’s cash funds last year more than doubled from €1.36m to €3.3m, while it disposed of €4.08m in investments during the year and added €2m in investments. Numbers directly employed increased by one to 19.

Ms McHugh pointed out that the association is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, does not avail of any public funding to run the association or the ploughing event — which she said has an estimated economic impact of €70m to €80m annually.

“Based on that, the NPAI is a very important part of the rural Ireland economy and is in a strong position going forward for many more years.”