Pretax profit at Jaguar Landrover Ireland falls

Revenue increases by 12% to €27.9m

Pretax profit at Jaguar Land Rover Ireland (Services) Ltd reduced by 36 per cent to €7.65 million in the 12 months to the end of March last, its latest account show.

The drop in pretax profit came in spite of revenue increasing by €2.9 million or 12 per cent from €24.9 million to €27.9 million.

A reduction in “other operating income” – made up of automotive engineering research and development (R&D) tax credits and IDA Ireland grant income – from €9 million to €6.4 million was a large factor in the decline in profit.

Across fiscal 2021 and 2022, the company availed of R&D tax credits of €9.67 million, made up of €6.8 million in 2021 and €2.84 million in 2022.

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In the two years, the firm received IDA grant income of €5.75 million, made up of €3.5 million in 2022 and €2.18 million in 2021.

The main activity of the Shannon-based firm is R&D activity relating to the delivery of key components in the next generation of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) electrical vehicles.

In a note with the accounts the directors of JLR said it “can become a central hub for the overall JLR global software strategy”.

Numbers employed at the company fell from 251 to 240 but staff costs increased to €18.97 million.

The note said the company was “utilising a senior leadership team of experienced software developers to help develop roadmaps and architectures for ongoing R & activity”.

“This team brings a wealth of directly relevant automotive and software architecture/development experience and an established engineering network to support initial scale growth.”

On the firm’s future developments, the directors said the company’s objective was to “bring certain software expertise and development capability in-house so that we can suitably cost optimise and scale solutions for next generation architectures”.

The profit takes account of interest payments of €1.35 million and non-cash depreciation and amortisation of €2.85 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times