Turnover at Doyle hotels up to €103m but writedown pushes group into red

TURNOVER AT the Doyle hotel group, which owns 11 high-end hotels including the five-star Westbury in Dublin, grew by 22 per cent to €103 million last year.

However, a €28.5 million writedown on the value of its hotel portfolio helped to push the company into the red.

Accounts for Doyle Hotels (Holdings) Limited, which trades as the Doyle Collection, show the company posted gross profit of €26 million in 2010, up from €18.5 million in 2009.

However, some €19.8 million of the total €28.5 million property impairment cost, as well as a €2.7 million writedown on the company’s investment property, were booked in the profit and loss account, resulting in an operating loss of €13.7 million.

This was significantly lower than the €65.1 million operating loss posted in 2009.

The €28.5 million property impairment charge related primarily to the company’s Irish properties.

Pretax losses at the company fell by two-thirds, down from €75.6 million in 2009 to €25 million last year.

The 22 per cent increase in turnover reflected the fact that a number of hotels in the group had closed temporarily during 2009, as they underwent refurbishment, as well as an improvement in margins across the group.

The Doyle Collection invested in a €200 million refurbishment and rebranding programme in 2008 and 2009, as it moved to position itself in the luxury and high-end market.

The group is controlled by members of the Gallagher, Beatty, Monahan and Roche families. The company sold the Jurys Inns chain of hotels to Quinlan Private for €1.2 billion in 2007.

It owns 11 upmarket hotels in Dublin, Britain and the US, including the Marylebone and Kensington Hotels in London and the Dupont Hotel in Washington.

The Doyle Collection employed, on average, 1,030 people in 2010, up from 970 the previous year. Total payroll costs, including pensions, stood at €37.9 million, up from €32 million in 2009.

Earlier this month The Irish Timesreported that the five-star Westbury Hotel in Dublin was making 35 staff redundant as part of cost-saving measures being implemented by its owner.

Earlier this year, Bill Walshe, who had been chief executive of the Doyle Collection since 2007, stepped down. Chief financial officer Patrick King is acting chief executive.

The company accounts list “a further deterioration in the global economy, changes in inflation, an increase in interest rates, and fluctuations in exchange rates” as the key risks and uncertainties facing the company.