Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of travel firm, TUI last year declined by 11 per ent to £4.1 million (€4.75 million).
New accounts filed by the German-owned TUI Ireland Ltd show that the business recorded the decline in profits in spite of revenues increasing here by 12 per cent from £85.1 million to £95.3 million in the 12 months to the end of September last.
According to the directors’ report, “the tourism industry has enjoyed a good financial year in the Republic of Ireland”.
The directors state that the combination of growing the firm’s main beach capacity, as well as expanding its third party flying programme “has resulted in continued growth as the TUI brand becomes more recognisable, aided by our re-branding campaign earlier in the year”.
The directors state that their expectation “is continued profitability for 2019 driven by further growth in our main beach programme”.
The firm recorded the lower profits as cost of sales increased from £69.7 million to £77.3 million and distribution costs went up from £8.24 million to £10.79 million.
Accumulated profits at the end of September last totalled £15.4 million.
Numbers employed by the firm reduced from 45 and 43 and staff costs totalled £1.75 million. Directors’ remuneration amounted to £201,000 and the highest paid director was paid £159,000 including pension contributions of £21,000.