Alan Clancy’s NolaClan hospitality group sustained a near €20 million hit to revenue in 2020 due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
NolaClan operates the successful House venues on Leeson Street in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast. Other venues include 37 Dawson Street and 9 Below in Dublin, the Oyster Tavern in Cork and Mrs Robinson's in Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Latest accounts lodged by NolaClan Ltd show revenue decreased from €23.96 million to €4.28 million for 2020, with the company posting a pretax loss of €5 million, up from a €1.69 million deficit in 2019.
The directors state that the loss for 2020 “includes a significant investment in resources to support all venues during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“However, with the ongoing support from shareholders, we are confident the group will return to profitability once normal trading conditions in the hospitality sector resume,” they add.
The directors state that future sales growth in the group will be driven by increased late-night bar sales once normal trading resumes.
Discretionary spending
The directors state that during Covid-19 impact on business, all discretionary spending was eliminated, while all non-committed capital expenditure was cancelled or postponed.
At the end of December 2020 the group had a shareholders’ deficit of €6.87 million that included accumulated losses of €9.57 million offset by a share premium account of €2.98 million.
The group’s cash funds during 2020 reduced from €1.13 million to €220,328.
Numbers employed during 2020 reduced from 378 to 139 as a result of the Covid shutdowns, and staff costs declined sharply from €7.1 million to €2.3 million.
The directors are listed as Alan Clancy and Gerald Conlan, and directors' pay was slashed by 79 per cent to €87,212.
The accounts disclose that NolaClan received €1 million in Government grants during the year. Exceptional costs of €430,530 were recorded.
The group did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
