Drury records 12-fold increase in profits

ONE MORE THING:IRELAND MIGHT have remained in recession last year but that didn't hold back public relations agency Drury Communications, which recorded a 12-fold increase in its profitability.

Drury’s 2010 pre-tax profit amounted to €328,000, its latest accounts show. This compared with a surplus of €27,000 in the previous 12 months.

This performance was all the more impressive against a backdrop of declining revenue. Turnover was down 12.5 per cent to €2.8 million. This was the result of the agency making the strategic decision to exit from research work.

On a positive note, its cost of sales declined to €1.8 million in the period from €2.1 million in 2009.

No dividend was paid to its US-based parent group, Omnicom. In 2009, a divvy of just over €1.4 million was passed over to Omnicom.

“While revenues are down, there are plenty of opportunities out there. That’s the reality,” young gun managing director Anne-Marie Curran said this week. “We’ve added probably a new client every month this year,” she added.

Impressive stuff. New additions to its client roster include Tourism Ireland Ltd, the Commission for Aviation Regulation, accountancy body Acca, Discover Science and Engineering, and the Children’s Hospital of Ireland, which is due to be located at the Mater campus in north inner city Dublin.

Drury’s other clients include fast-food giant McDonald’s, InterTrade Ireland, and a certain Anglo Irish Bank, or the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, as it now prefers to be called.