Profits jump at Kelly’s in Rosslare as confidence returns

Profits at the four-star Kelly’s Resort Hotel in Rosslare increased by 12 per cent in 2016 as a “bit more confidence” returned to the economy, the company said.

Recently filed accounts for Kelly’s Resort Hotel Limited show an increase in pretax profits from €688,261 in 2015 to €772,282 last year. Operating profit also increased by almost 12 per cent to €834,648 as the company recorded turnover of €14.4 million.

Bill Kelly, who runs the hotel with his daughter Laura Kelly, said increasing confidence meant people were willing to spend money on time away. He said this is reflected in the hotel’s occupancy rates which ran at “around 92 per cent”.

As for 2017, Mr Kelly said he expected that growth wouldn’t be as significant because the hotel opened later in the year due to a significant project on the kitchen in the resort. On the whole, Mr Kelly estimated the company had spent around €3 million in capital projects over the last few years.

Tourism growth presents challenge to State, conference told

---

Dublin hotels edge towards 90% occupancy in October

---

Midlands tourism promotion body in danger of closure

---

Michael Smurfit funded K Club extension with shareholder loans

---

“It has been a number of challenging years so we continued investing throughout the period of the recession and that gives us confidence [in our product],” he said.

As to whether Brexit could pose challenges for the company, Mr Kelly said that it hasn’t had a noticeable effect so far and he doesn’t anticipate it having a negative impact on Kelly’s despite the UK being one of the company’s core markets.

Staff retention

With 126 rooms, Kelly’s employed a total of 236 staff last year, an increase of 11 on the previous year. Staff costs rose by almost 2 per cent to €5.77 million in the same period while directors’ fees dropped from €231,606 to €218,333.

While staff retention isn’t a huge issue for the company, it paid Mr Kelly and his mother, Breda, €1.15 million last year to buy apartments for staff.

“In Rosslare there’s a lot of pressure in terms of rental accommodation, especially in the summer, and it can be expensive for staff members to rent in the locality,” said Mr Kelly.

In addition to the payment to Bill and Breda Kelly for that purchase, the company behind the resort paid rent to Breda Kelly of €10,000 last year while both Bill and Breda Kelly received a further €72,299 in rent for the use of property.

The company’s bank overdraft, meanwhile, increased significantly from €26,662 to €837,562 to help with capital projects while cash at the bank and in hand dropped by 22 per cent to €183,934.