Tougher season for GAA sports firm
PROFITS slumped last year at the Cork-based sportswear firm that supplies helmets to many of the country’s top hurlers.
Clare’s Shane O’Donnell and Waterford’s Austin Gleeson are just two of the game’s top hurlers to wear helmets from Mycro Sportswear’s range.
New accounts show that the firm recorded profits of €12,404 last year following profits of €120,295 in 2016. Accumulated profits at the end of June last stood at €1.9m. The company last year paid €59,458 in dividends. The firm was established in 1986 and is the biggest supplier of hurling helmets in Ireland with the standard helmet selling for €75.
The company’s cash pile last year dropped from €657,158 to €602,878. A large factor in the drop was the pay to directors last year soaring from €4,728 to €118,766. The firm’s current helmet is the fifth generation of equipment that is available.
The helmets are manufactured at Ballincollig in Co Cork using raw materials from local suppliers.
The firm has benefited greatly from the GAA making it mandatory for all hurlers to wear a helmet since 2010.
A study has shown that the proportion of hurling-related head injuries among A&E-treated players are reduced tenfold when full head protection is availed of by wearing both a helmet and a face guard.
Along with its business here, the company has a healthy export business, selling its helmets to far-flung places such as Australia and Japan along with exports made to the UK, France and the US.
Numbers employed by the firm last year remained static at 15.