Yoghurt-maker Glenisk records profit of €5.7m chiefly due to insurance payout

Main production facility had been destroyed by fire

Glenisk managing director Vincent Cleary walks through the wreckage of the business after a fire in September 2021. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Glenisk managing director Vincent Cleary walks through the wreckage of the business after a fire in September 2021. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

Organic yoghurt maker Glenisk recorded a pretax profit of €5.7 million in 2021 chiefly as a result of a net insurance payout arising from a fire that destroyed the firm’s main production facility.

Accounts show the Cleary family-owned company sustained a €5.4 million hit to 2021 revenues as a result of the fire in September 2021.

The accounts for Cordagrove Ltd show that 2021 revenues reduced by 23.5 per cent from €28.8 million to €21.26 million “due to disruption caused by a fire at the group’s factory which completely destroyed all fixed assets held there”.

The group, based at Killeigh, Tullamore, Co Offaly, recorded the €5.7 million profit chiefly due to the disposal of fixed assets worth €7 million.

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Commercial director with Glenisk, Emma Walls, explained that the €7 million profit on asset disposal were “the insurance proceeds received in 2021 for plant, premises and machinery”.

Ms Walls stated that the funds received were “earmarked to reinstate the premises post 2021″. She said 2020 had been a record year for Glenisk: “The business was on track to achieve similar sales for 2021. The fire at the facility in September 2021 halted all yoghurt production, which did not resume until February 2022.”

The €5.7 million profit was a 196 per cent increase on the pretax profit of €1.92 million for 2020.

Ms Walls cautioned that the €5.7 million pretax profit wasn’t an accurate reflection of Glenisk’s 2021 business performance as the funds received through insurance payments in 2021 were used post-2021 to reinstate the premises.

The yoghurt maker’s profits were also boosted by €1.94 million in “other operating income” and Ms Walls said this figure related “to insurance compensation for the loss of stock in hand, business interruption insurance and grant income”.

The group’s profits were hit by €1.08 million in exceptional costs concerning “fire-related costs”.

On last year’s performance, Ms Walls said that “2022 was a challenging year as we reintroduced ranges in a phased manner as our manufacturing capacity increased and the required machinery was reinstated. This phased return has continued into 2023”.

In June the Cleary family reassumed 100 per cent ownership of the business after Danone sold its 38 per cent share.

Numbers employed totalled 80 and staff costs amounted to €5.3 million in 2021. Nine directors served during the year and directors’ pay totalled €1.96 million including pension contributions of €167,470.

At the end of 2021 the firm’s shareholder funds totalled €16.55 million that include accumulated profits of €11.47 million. Cash funds increased from €5.6 million to €9.45 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times