Ploughing championships operator records losses of €1.25m

The company that operates the National Ploughing Championships recorded combined losses of €1.25 million, with the past two years of the competition being cancelled due to Covid.

Accounts filed by the National Ploughing Association of Ireland show that the company last year recorded pretax losses of €600,353 when the event was cancelled for a second year running due to the pandemic. It recorded losses of €656,240 in 2020.

The cancellations decimated the association’s revenues across 2021 and 2020.

In the year to the end of January 2022, the association recorded revenues of €105,219 after recording revenues of €90,990 in 2020.

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In 2019, the ploughing association recorded revenues of €5.6 million after 297,000 people attended the 88th National Ploughing Championships at Ballintrane, Fenagh, Co Carlow.

Commenting on the 2021 financial performance, the association’s assistant managing director Anna Marie McHugh said on Monday: “The losses are what they are. The National Ploughing Association is a national voluntary association limited by guarantee, we have no shareholders and we are self-funding, we don’t receive any Government grants to run the event.”

Last year the association’s administrative expenses stood at €1.1 million and Ms McHugh said: “During Covid we still had to run the national association and support our club and county ploughing associations.”

Ms McHugh said one national ploughing championship costs in the region of €6 million to €7 million to stage.

The loss last year reduced the association’s accumulated profits from €12.3 million to €11.7 million.

Ms McHugh said: “The NPA have always endeavoured to have enough reserves to run one, maybe two, events. This rainy day fund had to be tapped into during Covid and that is what it was for. The reality is that if the NPA did not have these reserves and without any Government funding, the association would have run the risk of financial ruin as a result of Covid but that has not happened and we are back and as strong as ever, thankfully.”

This year’s ploughing championships are to take place at Ratheniska, Co Laois, on September 20th, 21st and 22nd.

Ms McHugh said the association is expecting 300,000 visitors over the three days.

She said: “Honestly, we are absolutely delighted with the way the event is shaping up, we had no idea how our exhibitors and patrons would respond to the return of the event after a full three-year gap. We have been blown away by the demand for exhibition space and ticket sales to date. Already the event is very close to being as big as ever which we would never have expected.”

However, Ms McHugh doesn’t expect the association to return to profit this year.

She said: “No, I would not anticipate that the ploughing championships will make a profit this year. Hosting the world contest adds costs in the region of €1.5 million and there is no real financial return on that. Obviously there is a massive status associated and it is brilliant for tourism, but no financial gain for the national ploughing.”

She said: “Also, the NPA did add 15 per cent to the cost of exhibits this year in anticipation of increased costs of running [the] event, but since those rates were set in February, rates across the board for everything has skyrocketed and inflation has just soared. Our costs this year will definitely exceed our expenses, even with the bumper event that this year is shaping up to be.”

Ms McHugh said: “All that said, it is never about profit for the NPA. As I say, we are a national voluntary association and if the event breaks, even the board is satisfied.”