Quinn Manufacturing Group, the rump manufacturing business left behind after Sean Quinn's Quinn Group was restructured two years ago, has posted a pretax profit of €7 million for 2011 and begun to pay down its sizeable debt ahead of schedule.
Results issued yesterday show a strong performance in container glass helped to boost group sales by 8 per cent on the previous year to almost €680 million, although this increase was limited to 4 per cent when currency movements were stripped out.
Profits at the operating level were up 80 per cent at €43.5 million before exceptionals, while the pretax profit of €7 million compared to a €44.3 million loss in the previous year.
The company said better management of its working capital allowed it to pay down €20 million in senior debt ahead of schedule, with net debt standing at €395 million at the end of the year, down from €469 million in the previous period. Interest charges amounted to about €41.5 million in 2012.
Restructuring
Paul O'Brien, chief executive of the group, said the year had brought "considerable operational restructuring" in each of Quinn's four divisions: container glass; construction industry supplies; plastics and packaging; and radiators. These measures had allowed the company to "navigate through the current challenging conditions and ultimately leave the group well paced to benefit as the macro-economic cycle improves," Mr O'Brien said.
The group does not break down performance for its divisions, but chief financial officer Paul Donnelly pointed to last year’s Euro 2012 football championship and its associated celebrations as a particularly positive driver for bottle sales.
Quinn Manufacturing is 75 per cent owned by its former creditors – mainly banks and hedge funds – with the remainder held by its principal former lender, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
Mr O’Brien said the “most pleasing” aspect of the 2012 results was cash generation in light of the working capital improvements. Quinn posted positive cashflow of €123.7 million for the 12 months.
At the start of this year the group was close to merging its cement business with that of rival Lagan, but the talks ended without agreement.
Mr Donnelly acknowledged that the Irish cement industry continues to suffer from overcapacity, adding that while “something has to give” in such situations Quinn was reserving its position for now.
