Celebrity travel firm Adams & Butler returns to profit

Adams & Butler, a travel firm that caters for celebrity and wealthy tourists, has returned to profit. The company recorded profits of €197,423 for last year, according to its latest accounts.

The company posted losses of €551,021 in 2020.

Commenting on the accounts, owner Siobhán Byrne Learat said: “If we had made a profit of €1 last year I would have been happy — as long as we didn’t lose more money.”

The firm’s cash funds last year increased more than fivefold, from €156,976 to €802,575.

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Ms Byrne Learat said the company was already having a good year.

“We have had our best ever November, our best ever April and just confirmed our best ever May in business,” she said.

“We have individual targets for our team, and two team members have beaten their targets for the year already. We have almost reached our revenue target for this year.”

Ms Byrne Learat said she didn’t let any staff go during the pandemic and that “they have sweated blood and tears for every single penny coming into the business at the moment”.

The firm arranged the itinerary of Kanye West’s and Kim Kardashian’s low-profile honeymoon here in 2014, and Ms Byrne Learat said that last August it arranged a four-day, €300,000 holiday for a family of four.

However, Ms Byrne Learat said one client had told her “the best thing he did on his break was going on the back of a tractor with a farmer, and that cost nothing”.

The firm is also organising a holiday for a terminally ill American man here this month whose final wish was to come to Ireland.

The accounts show that the company last year benefited from various government Covid-19 grants totalling €541,610 that included €146,965 in wage subsidy scheme payments and a Fáilte Ireland grant of €179,471. Tourism Ireland provided €45,000 while the company received €102,107 in Covid Restriction Support Scheme payments.

Ms Byrne Learat said that, last year, the company had benefited from the marketing work it continued to do during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020.

The firm employs nine and at the end of October, shareholder funds stood at €170,893.