O’Neill’s hit by shorter GAA season
The shortened GAA championship season last year hit sales of O’Neill’s replica jerseys, as pre-tax profits at the main company behind the O’Neill’s brand fell 18% to €1.3m.
Higher costs at the Dublin based Balbriggan Textiles Ltd also contributed to the decrease in pre-tax profits as the company’s gross profit increased by 6% to €11.7m.
Director Paul Towell said that “2018 was a challenging year for us on a number of fronts with the uncertainty around Brexit”.
One of the challenges O’Neill’s faced was the GAA shortening the championship season by three weeks “which reduced the time both for producing and selling replica jerseys”, Mr Towell said.
“It also shortened the lead in time to generate interest around the finals and coincided with the end of school holidays, all of which had a negative effect on sales.”
Separate accounts for the O’Neill firm in the North, O’Neill’s Irish International Sports Company Ltd show that the opening of new outlets helped pre-tax profits increase slightly to £1.06m (€1.25m).
The company’s gross profit climbed 20% to £7m.
Mr Towell said the biggest replica jersey sellers last year were for Limerick and Dublin.
“Limerick jerseys have continued to sell well in 2019 after a new jersey was launched following their All-Ireland success,” he said.
O’Neill’s opened two new stores, in Derry and in Craigavon, which incurred additional costs, and the O’Neill’s business overall “is performing well this year”, Mr Towell said. “We acquired a shirt factory in Derry, Smyth & Gibson which was closing down. We were anxious to retain the skilled workforce involved. This coincided with the opening of our new retail outlet in Derry and our commitment to that part of our country.
“The impact of Brexit has, of course, created uncertainty as we have manufacturing plants on both sides of the border and our trucks cross the border daily,” he said.
“Approximately 30% of our 800 staff in Strabane live in the Republic and cross the border daily. We are anxiously waiting the outcome of this week’s election in the UK,” he added.
Balbriggan Textiles Ltd employed 171 people, and staff costs came to €5.7m.
Shareholder funds at the Dublin company were €18.7m, and the company’s cash pile fell from almost €6.4m to €3.2m.
Staff numbers at O’Neill’s Irish International Sports Company Ltd increased from 559 to 632, and staff costs increased from £11.8m to almost £13.3m.
Its shareholder funds came to £10.7m and its cash pile climbed to £4.8m.
