The country’s largest dedicated parcel delivery firm, DPD Ireland, has this year paid out a €70m dividend from the bumper profits recorded in recent years.
The post balance sheet dividend payout is disclosed in new accounts for Interlink Ireland Ltd, trading as DPD Ireland, which show that pre-tax profits last year increased by 15.6% to €25.5m.
The €25.5m pre-tax profits for 2023 follow pre-tax profits of €22.06m in 2022.
The pre-tax profits followed revenues rising by 3% from €182.5m to €188.6m and the increase last year followed a 17% drop in revenues in 2022.
The principal activity of the firm is to provide an overnight service for the collection and delivery of parcels, through a network of franchises/network members in Ireland.
The directors state that “turnover has remained relatively stable” from 2022 after the drop off from Covid volumes that year.
“The expectation of management is that turnover will remain consistent if not slightly increase in the following years,” they add.
The business’s operating profits last year increased by 6% to €23.3m and interest payments received of €2.19m resulted in the pre-tax profits of €25.5m.
In 2000 the business became part of GeoPost, the parcels and express arm of French Poste, the French Post Office and the Irish business renamed itself DPD in 2008.
The company’s Athlone facility can handle up to 21,000 parcels an hour.
Numbers employed last year totalled 481 as staff costs rose from €19.49m to €22.06m. The profit for last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €3.77m.
A breakdown of revenues shows that €162.45m of revenues were generated in Ireland with €26.15m UK based.
Pay to directors decreased from €1.2m to €1.05m made up of emoluments of €900,000 and pension contributions of €152,000.
The company last year recorded a post tax profit of €22.52m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €2.98m.
Ahead of the €70m dividend payout this year, shareholder funds on December 31st last totalled €128.53m.
The €128.53m compared to pre-pandemic shareholder funds of €52.96m at the end of 2019.
The firm had accumulated profits of €127.4m on December 31 and the firm’s cash funds last year reduced from €6.7m to €5.14m.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan