State’s largest car clamping firm goes into the red

The largest car clamping firm in the country plunged into the red in 2012 to record pre-tax losses of €621,629.

New figures just filed with the Companies Office show that Nationwide Controlled Parking Systems Ltd went into the red as revenues reduced by 5 per cent from €10.29m to €9.8m in the 12 months to the end of August 31st 2012.

The pre-tax loss in 2012 follows a pre-tax profit of €327,025 in 2011.

Nationwide Controlled Parking Systems (NCPS) Ltd manages 65,000 car park spaces in 850 sites across the country and its clients include Irish Rail, Dublin City Council, Aldi and Superquinn.

According to the accounts just filed, they show that a major contributor to the pre-tax loss was a provision of €478,514 against amounts owed by group companies.

The directors state that gross profit margins reduced from 35 per cent to 29 per cent in the year contributing to an overall operating loss of €56,644 compared to an operating profit of €433,063.

According to the directors’ report “the directors are hopeful the levels of parking management services can be maintained and that the difficult overall market conditions should still allow for the company to operate profitably in the coming years”.

The report adds: “During the year, the company was successful in the retention and expansion of its largest parking management contract for services on a long term basis and thus ensure a level of operational viability upon which the company can expand its operations and maximise economies of scale.”

The directors add that “notwithstanding the company’s ability to trade profitably, the directors continue to monitor all key aspects of the business and implement any necessary cost saving measures to ensure efficiencies are maintained.”

The figures show that the firm had a shareholders’ deficit at the end of August 2012 of €1.868m.

The firm’s cash reduced from €233,598 to €220,101.

The loss took account of non-cash depreciation costs totalling €183,873.

Numbers employed at the firm declined from 91 to 80 with staff costs reducing from €2.8m to €2.36. A breakdown of the employees shows that 58 are operations with 15 in administration and sales and seven in management.

The decline in number of employees resulted in employment costs decreasing from €5.3m to €2.8m. Aggregate remuneration for the company's five directors, Jason Ballard, Steven Kingswell, Thomas Harrington, Victor Gibson and Raymond Whelan, who resigned in January 2012, amounted to €269,888.