Louis Fitzgerald hospitality group sees profits rise 22% to over €20m

The group expanded its operations in June 2023 with the purchase of the Imperial Hotel in Cork. File Picture: David Creedon

Operating profits at the main firm behind the Louis Fitzgerald hospitality group last year increased by 22% to €20.19m.

The pub, restaurant, and hotel group owns the likes of Kehoe's and the Stag's Head in Dublin. 

New accounts filed by the group’s holding company, Burtse Ltd, show that the business's operating profits rose as revenues increased by 3.3%, from €80.84m to €83.48m, in the 12 months to the end of June 2024.

The group expanded its operations in June 2023 with the purchase of the Imperial Hotel in Cork.

The scale of the Fitzgerald operation in 2024 comes 56 years after a 23-year-old Louis Fitzgerald moved from Tipperary to Dublin to purchase his first pub on Townsend St, Dublin, which had then weekly revenues of £80 before quickly rising to £560 per week.

The directors state that the group "is in a strong financial position”, adding that “management aims to increase the profitability of the company through increasing turnover and management of its operating costs”.

The accounts show that the business repaid loans of €6m during the year, and this followed loan repayments of €8.45m in the prior year.

Zero pay

The directors, Louis Fitzgerald and his wife Helen, state that last year gross profit margin increased from 73.6% to 73.8%. The two received zero pay last year from Burtse Ltd.

The two lead the family-owned Louis Fitzgerald Group, where the Fitzgerald adult children now take a prominent role in the running of the business.

The group’s businesses include well-known Dublin city centre pubs Stag’s Head, Kehoes, Bruxelles, The Gin Palace, Grand Central, and The Quays Dublin.

The group also operates An Poitín Stil, The Laurels, Palmerstown House, The Roost, Annie May’s, Carroll’s, The Arlington Hotel, and The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel.

Numbers employed by the business decreased by nine to 902 as staff costs decreased from €22.69m to €21.8m.

Balance sheet

Burtse recorded the pre-tax profit of €18.56m after taking into account of non-cash depreciation costs of €2.3m.

Burtse enjoyed the pre-tax profits after paying out €173,349 in interest payments and incurring a non-cash property write-down cost of €1.45m. The hospitality group recorded a post-tax profit of €15.87m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €2.68m.

The firm’s balance sheet received a major boost as the value of the revaluation reserve increased from €25.88m to €78.66m.  This followed a 2024 revaluation with the value of refurbishments and premises alone increasing by €43.12m before depreciation.

This contributed to shareholder funds increasing from €86.17m to €141.46m. Accumulated profits increased from €41.8m to €44.3m. Burtse’s cash funds increased from €11.53m to €17.28m.

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