HARMONIA, the publisher of Irish Tatlerand Umagazines, blamed the cost of investments as the main reason behind its 88 per cent drop in pretax profits last year. Chief executive Norah Casey was speaking after accounts just filed by the company showed its pretax profits had dropped from €773,238 to €90,743 to the end of December 2008.
Harmonia also publishes Food & Wineand Ireland of the Welcomes. In spite of the drop in profits, Ms Casey said: "2008 for the company was a good performance. We are very happy with it."
She said the company's investments last year included €500,000 on its iVenus.com website and an undisclosed sum to purchase Ireland of the Welcomes.
Ms Casey said the company's titles did not experience a drop in advertising revenues last year. Earlier this year the company cancelled Diarmuid Gavin's Garden Designafter a poor response. The company also ceased publishing Caramagazine during 2008.
She said: “2009 has been a solid year so far. We have been held back in our expansion plans, and planned acquisitions are on hold. Our growth won’t be meteoric this year, but we will be fine.”
Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures show that last year a number of the company's best-selling magazines sustained significant drops in circulation: Woman's Wayby 12.8 per cent to 23,182; Umagazine by 9.6% to 30,846 and Ireland of the Welcomesby 7.6 per cent to 75,466, although others recorded increases.
Remuneration to the company’s two directors – Ms Casey and Richard Hannaford – including pension contributions, rose 56 per cent from €258,433 to €405,557.
The abridged accounts – which do not reveal the company’s turnover – state that the company’s gross profit’s fell 14.6 per cent to €2 million from €2.37 million.
