Procter & Gamble records huge jump in Irish profits

Profits more than doubled at the main Irish subsidiary of consumer products giant Procter & Gamble in 2017, despite a decline in revenues a year after it transferred ownership of its Nenagh plant to Coty, which subsequently announced plans to close the facility.

Newly filed accounts for Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited show it recorded a pretax profit of €25.5 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2017, compared to €11.7 million a year earlier.

Much of those profits derived from discontinued operations, with just €9.1 million coming from current operations.

Turnover for the company, which employs close to 500 people at its oral care facility in Newbridge, Co Kildare, dropped from €97.9 million to €75.4 million.

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Procter & Gamble, whose portfolio includes Oral-B, Braun and Gillette, sold 43 of its beauty brands to Coty in October 2016 in a $12.9 billion (€12.13 billion) deal that saw its Nenagh plant being transferred to its rival. Just months after taking ownership of the facility, Coty announced the phased closure of the site with the loss of more than 200 jobs. Final shutdown of the plant was scheduled for the end of 2018 but occurred last month.

Employee numbers at Procter & Gamble’s Irish unit fell from 600 people to 471 during the reporting period with related costs dropping from €46.2 million to €32.4 million.

In the year under review, the company paid a cash contribution of €875,000 to HFC Prestige Manufacturing Ireland in exchange for the issuance of 875,000 shares. It subsequently passed on the assets and liabilities of its Nenagh Prestige Cosmetics business to HFC Prestige in return for 59 million shares. Shortly after this, the company declared and distributed a €59.9 million dividend to its parent consisting of the entire share capital of HFC Prestige.