Irish arm of Mars records pre-tax profit after €8.4m swing

The Irish arm of food giant Mars last year returned to profit to record pre-tax profits of €2.54 million.

New accounts show that Mars Foods Ireland Ltd recorded the return to pre-tax profits in spite of revenues decreasing by 7 per cent from €127.25 million to €118.74 million.

The company engages in sales and marketing in four separate segments – food, petcare, chocolate and chewing gum and some of its best-known products includes Mars bars, Twix, M&Ms, Wrigleys gum, Whiskas, Pedigree Chum and Uncle Ben’s rice.

The business’s return to pre-tax profits followed pre-tax losses of €5.86 million in 2017 – a positive swing of €8.4 million.

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The return to profit coincided with the number employed reducing from 87 to 75 as wages and salaries reduced from €5.6 million to €4.8 million.

The reduction in staff resulted in redundancy costs doubling from €627,000 to €1.26 million for last year.

The profit also takes account of non-cash impairment costs of €640,000 while the company’s operating lease costs totalled €430,000.

The company’s cost of sales reduced from €107.39 million to €97.8 million and administrative expenses reduced from €25 million to €18 million.

Directors’ pay increased from €681,000 to €784,000.

Shareholder funds totalled €18.8 million.