Gibson film boosts profit at catering firm Fitzers
COOKING meals for movie stars Mel Gibson and Sean Penn and other cast members of ‘The Professor and the Madman’ boosted profits at Fitzers Catering in 2016.
New accounts show that pretax profits at the company increased by 21.5pc to €546,869 in 2016.
The increase in profit came in spite of revenues dipping by 9pc from €15.88m to €14.38m.
The drop in revenues is attributable to the company’s catering contract at Titanic Belfast coming to an end in June 2016.
The ending of the contract was mutually agreed, with the catering operation going in-house.
Barry Storey CEO of the Dublin firm, which today employs around 580 full-time and parttime employees said yesterday that “the 2016 bottom line was overall satisfactory”.
Post tax profits in 2016 were €498,225.
Asked what revenues the company recorded in 2017, Mr Storey said they will come in at €13.2m with post-tax profits of €400,000.
Mr Storey said that revenues were bolstered in 2016 by the start-up of a new contract at Slane Castle, where the company is servicing Browne’s Bar, the Gandon Room restaurant and all conferencing and banqueting including weddings.
On the company’s projected revenues for 2018, Mr Storey said that revenues will be around €13.6m stating that this includes a full year of trading at Slane Castle and increased revenues in the Convention Centre Dublin.
Last year, Fitzers Catering agreed another five-year catering contract with the Convention Centre.
Accumulated profits stood at €2.27m.
The firm’s cash pile increased from €1m to €1.39m.
A breakdown of revenues shows that revenues here increased from €11.4m to €13m with revenues in Europe decreasing from €4.3m to €1.37m.
Staff costs totalled €6.25m.
The increase came despite a drop in revenue as its Titanic Belfast catering contract came to an end