A one-off gain of €1.28 million from the sale of a lease on Dublin's Henry Street helped boost the profits at Foot Locker's Irish operation last year in spite of a 13.8 per cent decline in its sales, its latest accounts show.  Ciarán Hancock, Business Affairs Correspondent, reports.

Foot Locker, the biggest sports-shoe retailer in the US, posted a pretax profit in Ireland of €1.88 million in the year to the end of last December, up from the €1.27 million in 2005.

Without the one-off gain, Foot Locker's profits would have roughly halved during 2006.

The increase in profits helped reduce Foot Locker Retail Ireland's accumulated losses from €3.6 million to €2.2 million. It had net assets at the end of last December of €10.3 million.

Foot Locker's turnover declined to €12.5 million from €14.5 million in the year to the end of last December. Its cost of sales also fell, from €6.6 million to €5.2 million.

This gave the company a gross profit of €7.4 million, down almost €500,000 on 2005.

Foot Locker entered the Irish market in 2004 with the acquisition of 11 stores in the Champion Sports chain for an undisclosed sum. Foot Locker had 10 stores at the end of 2006. This year, however, it secured €850,000 by offloading a lease on one of its Grafton Street outlets to Carrolls Irish Gift Shop.

The company is also believed to be seeking about €750,000 for a lease on a store in Galway city.

Foot Locker's accounts show that its tax bill rose to €425,000 last year from €120,000 in 2005. No dividends were paid to its New York-based publicly quoted parent group.

Foot Locker employed 52 people here in 2006, down from 75 a year earlier.