Firm behind Temple Bar pub sees return to profit this year

Company narrowed losses in 2021 as pandemic ebbed

Losses narrowed at the company behind the Temple Bar last year. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Losses narrowed at the company behind the Temple Bar last year. Photograph: Aidan Crawley

The company behind the Temple Bar pub in Dublin expects to return to profit this year after two years of Covid-19 related losses.

New accounts for Temple Inns Ltd state that after the lifting of all Covid-19 restrictions, the company which operates the Temple Bar pub in the Dublin district of the same name “has experienced a strong trading activity in the licensed premises and a slow return to trading in the retail shops”.

The note states that directors “believe that the company will return to profitability this year”.

The new accounts show that the business recorded after-tax losses of €115,606 for the 12 months to the end of last October which was a dramatic improvement on the loss of €3.4 million in the prior year.

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The firm saw revenue plummet 71 per cent to €6.72 million in 2020. The abridged accounts for 2021 don’t provide a revenue figure for the second pandemic-hit year.

The loss also takes into account €1.23 million in Government subsidies and grants last year and this followed €652,775 in grants and subsidies received in fiscal 2020.

Those payments allowed the firm to keep staff numbers unchanged at 81.

The accounts show there was €100,000 in “dividends payable” in 2021 and the same amount in “dividends payable” in 2020.

The company last year benefited from a €381,352 gain in the value of investment property compared with a prior year €2.85 million write down.

The accounts show that in spite of the two years of Covid-19 related losses, the pub business’s balance sheet remained strong.

At the end of October 2021, the company had accumulated profits of €19.6 million. Cash funds during the year increased from €4.82 million to €5.03 million.

Directors’ pay remained at the same level as 2020 at €300,000 while pension contributions were reduced from €62,758 to €49,953.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times