Profits up at Zeus Packaging as sales grow sharply

Pretax profits at Brian O’Sullivan-led Zeus Packaging last year increased by 51 per cent to €16.39 million as revenues grew sharply.

Latest accounts for the Rathcoole, Co Dublin-based global packaging solutions group show it recorded a 39 per cent jump in sales to €287.45 million on the back of its acquisition strategy.

Mr O’Sullivan won the 2021 Irish EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Last year, Zeus Packaging acquired the central European packaging group, Petruzalek, which included a Ukrainian subsidiary.

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Is the tech crunch a correction or a calamity?

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The job losses announced by Meta and Stripe may provide an indication of layoffs across the tech sector. Inside Business is analysing the impact of the redundancies, announced over the past week, across the wider Irish economy. After enjoying bumper profits and a surge in recruitment during the pandemic, interest rate rises and the cost of living crisis have finally caught up with the tech giants. But is the crunch merely a recalibration of the sector or a more foreboding warning of global recession? Ciaran Hancock, Cliff Taylor and Laura Slattery analyse how prepared we are to absorb the losses, what the impact on the commercial property market will be and does the IDA have a Plan B should the multinationals pare back significantly.

The director’s report accompanying the accounts states that due to the conflict in Ukraine, the subsidiary’s trade “is at a significantly reduced level in very difficult circumstances”.

Mr O’Sullivan has taken steps to secure the stock and other assets in Ukraine and is actively monitoring the situation, according to the report.

Numbers employed by the group last year increased from 331 to 560 and staff costs climbed from €13.65 million to €17.98 million.

Pay to Fermoy, Co Cork native and sole director, Mr O’Sullivan, last year reduced from €2.3 million to €2.18 million.

The business continued to expand this year, announcing the purchasing of JJ O’Toole packaging firm in July. It also took over Agri-Flex Inc, a Quebec-based supplier of agricultural and horticultural packaging, and two UK packaging companies, Swanline Group and its sister company BoxMart.

The director’s report notes that the acquisitions strengthen Zeus’s position in the retail, food and beverage, and ecommerce packaging sectors.

The company said at the time of the JJ O’Toole purchase it was on target to achieve €500 million annualised revenues in 2023 and annualised revenues of €400 million for 2022.

Customers of Zeus range across sectors and include Lidl, Harrods, Moet & Chandon, Ryanair and McDonald’s.

The accounts show that the group’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (‘EBITDA’) last year totalled €22.2 million in 2021 compared to €15.9 million in 2020.

At the end of December last year, the group had shareholder funds of €54 million while its cash funds totalled €15 million.