The Irish unit of food multinational Nestlé, best known for its Nescafé coffee and chocolate bars such as KitKat and Aero, returned to profit last year after recording fewer exceptional costs relating to the closure of its chocolate crumb manufacturing plant at Mallow, Co Cork.

Overall the Irish subsidiary, which carries out wholesale and distribution activities for its Swiss parent, recorded net income of €2.9 million last year, compared with a loss of €6.5 million in 2004, according to the most recent set of accounts filed with the Companies Office.

The 2005 figure included €208,000 worth of exceptional costs relating to the plant closure, bringing the total charge over the two years to €10.41 million. The accounts don't specify which particular aspect of the closure the most recent payment refers to, though the earlier charge was believed to relate to the cutting of 57 jobs and an undisclosed sum paid to Dairygold to compensate for the cessation of a milk contract. The plant is due to close at the end of this month and from then the company will switch production of chocolate crumb, which is used to make chocolate bars at its plant in York, northern England, to Girvan in Scotland. Sales at the Irish unit increased 2.3 per cent, to €178 million.

The board of Nestlé Ireland said the results for 2005 were "good, with all business units delivering positive sales growth versus the previous year."

Operating profits for the year were up 19 per cent, at €3.4 million. The group didn't pay a dividend.

From now on, the company will focus on sales and distribution throughout Ireland from its base in CityWest, Dublin.

Directors' remuneration declined to €409,000 in 2005, from €502,000 a year earlier. According to the filing, there is currently only one director on the company register, Ciaran Joseph Sullivan. Four other directors resigned during 2005 and a fifth, who was only appointed in August 2005, resigned in March this year.

At the end of 2005, Nestlé employed 229 people in Ireland, unchanged from the prior year.

For the same period, parent company Nestlé SA, which also makes Buitoni pasta, reported a 21 per cent increase in net profits to €5.14 billion, a gain the company attributed to an increase in demand for its products and the rise in the value of the dollar.

Sales were up 7.5 per cent to €58.56 billion.