UK DEPARTMENT store group Debenhams made a loss of €15.1 million in Ireland in the year to the end of September 1st, 2007, according to accounts just filed with the Companies Office here.
This compared with an after-tax profit of just under €6.7 million in 2006.
Last year's loss included an exceptional charge of €11.5 million relating to the acquisition of Roches Stores in September 2006.
In addition, Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd made an operating loss of €2.3 million and incurred interest costs of €1.9 million.
The hefty losses racked up last year by Debenhams meant that its retained profit carried forward at the end of the year was reduced to €5.6 million from €20.7 million at the beginning of its 2007 fiscal period.
Not surprisingly, no dividend was paid to its UK parent group.
Debenhams acquired the leases for nine Roches stores and stock on September 12th, 2006, for €29 million.
In the year before the Roches deal was completed, Debenhams' Irish arm had produced after-tax profits of €6.7 million on turnover of €30.2 million.
The directors' report predicted that the "external commercial environment" for Debenhams would "remain competitive in 2008 as other retailers continue to invest" in their operations.
"Following the reorganisation and integration of the former Roches stores we are confident of our performance in the future," it added.
The cautious note sounded would appear to be borne out by sluggish retail sales figures released yesterday, which showed that sales in March declined by 2.1 per cent year on year.
In relation to the Roches deal, Debenhams incurred a depreciation charge of €1.1 million, redundancy costs of €6.7 million and marketing, travel, legal and integrations costs of €5.1 million.
On a positive note, the company earned a tax credit of €1.4 million last year.
The accounts note that the former owners of Roches have received €20 million of the consideration to date with the final instalment of €9 million due on September 12th this year.
Debenhams operates from 11 stores in the Republic, having closed its Jervis Street store recently and offloaded the lease there to Arnotts.
