Profits up 58% at Limerick’s Dansko Foods last year

Limerick dairy supplier Dansko Foods generated a 58 per cent increase in profits last year.

The company, which specialises in butter and cheese, said profit for the year to September 30th, 2016, amounted to €1,125,302, up from €466,892 the year before.

The firm, which has been in business for more than 30 years and employs 35 people, paid out a dividend of €3,406.

At the end of the year, the company had assets of €12,458,608, up from €12,195,605 the previous year.

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The directors of the company said there had been “no significant change” in its activities during the year. However, sales fell 16 per cent, from €82.3 million to €69.1 million, while the cost of sales came down 18 per cent from €80.3 million to €65.8 million.

Gross profit increased by almost 40 per cent to €3,350,841 from €2,035,300 the year before.

In May, a Seanad committee was told how the implications of Brexit for farmers and for the food and agriculture sectors were “frightening”, and could affect Irish competitiveness to a potentially catastrophic degree.

Irish Farmers' Association president Joe Healy said analysis of the potential implications of Brexit for the farming and food sectors was "stark", and that for the beef sector it was "frightening".