Payout of €400,000 to former Cara pharmacy group owners hits profits

A total of €400,000 paid out to the departing owner directors of the Cara Group of pharmacies hit profits at the business in 2021.

The then owners, former RTÉ Dragon Ramona Nicholas and her husband, Canice, received the payment as part of a High Court approved survival scheme for the pharmacy group that saw about 150 jobs retained and more than €14 million invested by new owners, Renrew Ltd.

The €400,000 payout out was made up of €29,000 in redundancy payments each and an ex gratia payment of €342,000.

The couple at the time wanted details of the deal to be kept confidential. Mr Justice Denis McDonald, however, questioned the payments commenting that the ex gratia payment was “a very substantial payment in the context of an insolvency where creditors are suffering a very substantial write-down of their debts”.

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Ramona and Canice Nicholas resigned at the start of February 2021 and the new accounts for Cara Pharmacy UC show directors’ pay for the 12 months to the end of March 2021 totalled €680,556 that include the one off exit payment of €400,000 and €280,556 paid out in emoluments.

The accounts further show that professional fees made up of legal and consulting fees attached to the group’s High Court examinership totalled €2.2 million.

Due mainly to an exceptional gain of €2.09 million concerning mainly the write back of liabilities, the group recorded pretax profits of €2.52 million.

Revenues decreased by 16 per cent to €23.5 million and the fiscal 2021 revenues included sales of €939,129 from the group’s loss-making Quayside Sligo store it shut down in March 2021.

The group recorded an operating profit of €695,713, compared to a loss of €6.96 million in the prior year.

Numbers employed by the group reduced from 175 to 147 as staff costs declined from €6.33 million to €5 million.

The group also benefited from ‘other operating income’ made up of Covid-19 wage subsidiary supports of €727,295 and Covid-19 restart grant income of €135,201.