BRANDED DISCOUNT retailer TK Maxx enjoyed bumper sales in Ireland last year, helped by two new store openings.

Its pre-tax profit rose by 84.5 per cent to €15.5 million in the 12 months to January 26th, 2008, according to accounts just published. Sales increased to €110.8 million from €74.7 million over the same period.

Like-for-like sales rose by 22.8 per cent while the company improved its gross margin by 3.1 percentage points to 22.3 per cent.

TK Maxx, which sells branded goods at discounts of 20-60 per cent below prices charged in department stores, opened two new shops last year - in Arklow and Kilkenny - to bring its total to 10. It has since added shops at Carrickmines in south Dublin and in Cork city.

The retailer paid just more than €2 million in corporation tax last year to give it an after-tax profit of €13.4 million. This helped to boost its shareholder funds to €31.5 million. No dividend was paid to its parent group.

Employee numbers rose to 645 last year from 508 in the previous period. Staff costs increased by 39 per cent to €9.2 million.

Some Irish customers had their transaction details accessed by computer hackers in 2007, according to the accounts.