Iceland eyes more stores as losses halved in Republic
The accounts filed by Iceland Stores Ireland Ltd show the pre-tax loss dropped to €364,000 from €771,000 in the 12 months of trading to March 24.
Revenues increased by almost a third to €30.1m, helped by new stores openings. The group has 16 shops and now plans to open more.
Iceland has seven stores in seven in Dublin, as well as in Carlow, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Douglas, Cork, Galway, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Longford, Midleton, Co Cork, Tralee, Co Kerry, and Waterford.
The directors said in the accounts that the business continued to trade successfully. It made an after-tax loss of €263,000 after posting a tax credit of €101,000.
Iceland had shut seven stores in 2005 due to poor trading but it reopened in 2009 under a different owner.
And it has so far accumulated losses of €4.17m. Its latest expansion means it now employs 226 people, including 17 staff at its head office, and staff costs rose €940,000 to €3.89m.
Cost of sales increased to €21.54m from €15.57m, while administrative expenses rose to €8.97m from €6.9m.
The loss takes into account restructuring and legal costs of €30,000, as well as non-cash depreciation costs of €791,000. Pay to directors last year increased sharply from €161,000 to €233,000. The expansion means its operating leases increased to just over €1m from €898,000.
Its shareholders’ deficit stood at €1.2m but the cash pile increased from €839,000 to €1.48m.
Its UK parent posted pre-tax profits last year of £67.3m (€73.9m) as revenues increased from £2.65bn to £2.77bn.
