Brink's 2011 loss exceeds €900,000
It prides itself on transporting money around the country safely, but security firm Brink’s Ireland Ltd made an after-tax loss of €906,818 last year.
This was the seventh year since 2004 that Brink’s recorded a loss in Ireland and left it with a deficit in its shareholders funds of €7.6 million at the end of December 2011. In 2010, it recorded a profit of €155,599.
The losses in the Irish business come against a backdrop of shareholder agitation with its US-based parent company to address the global firm’s poor performance.
The Irish accounts for 2011 state that the loss for the year and the deficit in its balance sheet were due to a “number of once-off events” that drove up costs, “mainly related to insurance”.
The directors said they were “satisfied” that the company had adequate resources to continue its “operational existence for the foreseeable future in the light of financial support committed from group entities”.
The directors said the company undertook a restructuring of the business in 2009 and installed a new management team in the first half of 2010.
The cash-in-transit (CIT) side of the business has refocused, “targeting new business”. The company opened a new branch in Galway in 2010.
Confidence
“While the local CIT market continues to be competitive, the company is competing well across all CIT lines of business and the directors are confident the company has taken the correct steps to drive the business forward,” the directors’ report added.
Brink’s accounts show turnover rose 2.8 per cent year-on-year to €22.2 million in 2011, while cost of sales rose by 5.2 per cent to €20.1 million. Its administrative expenses grew by 15 per cent to €2.3 million.
This left it with an operating loss of just under €190,000. A net interest charge of €713,000 extended its losses for the year.
In November, leading shareholder Shamrock Holdings – an investment vehicle founded by Roy E Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney – urged the board to explore options, including seeking a buyer, to “address meaningfully Brink’s continuing underperformance”.
