Leading Irish public relations agency Drury Porter Novelli recorded a 13% increase in its profits last year to €508,678, its latest accounts show.
This compared with a profit of €451,722 in 2017 and helped to boost shareholders' funds to just more €1.9 million. Drury secured a number of major new client accounts during the year, including Irish Life and Amazon Web Services.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Drury’s managing director Anne-Marie Curran indicated that the company is trading ahead of last year. “We have had a very strong year,” she said.
Ms Curran noted that Drury has been involved as a key adviser in a number of high-profile corporate transactions in 2019, including Mediahuis's acquisition of INM, the sale of Green Reit plc, and Flutter Entertainment's plan to merge with Toronto-listed Stars Group, owner of Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Sky Bet.
As the accounts are abridged, no profit and loss is published for Drury Communications Ltd, with the result that a figure for turnover is not available. Its tax charge for the year rose by almost 16 per cent to €81,190.
Drury had 29 employees in 2018, an increase of one on the previous year. Its payroll costs increased by 3 per cent to just under €2.5 million.
Within this, directors’ remuneration declined to €763,567 last year from €910,416 a year earlier.
Drury is led by Ms Curran, who will have completed 10 years as managing director in April 2020, and by chairman Billy Murphy. Other clients include listed service station operator Applegreen, Cairn Homes, building materials company CRH, State-owned energy provider ESB, food company Greencore, Science Foundation Ireland, the Road Safety Authority, and telecoms group Three Ireland. It is owned by the New York-based Omnicom Group.
