Sales at Power City down 9% in 2009

ELECTRICAL RETAILER Power City’s sales fell by 9 per cent in the year to September 26th, 2009, accounts filed at the Companies Registration Office show.

Turnover at the retail chain was €87.2 million for the 12-month period. This compares to sales of €95.9 million for the same period in 2008 and €105 million the previous year.

The firm, controlled by the family of Co Wicklow-based businessman Liam McKenna, experienced a drop in operating profit to €5.74 million last year from €6.86 million in 2008, while pretax profit fell to €6.92 million from €8.34 million.

The accounts reveal that shareholders received no dividend for the fiscal period, while directors’ and auditors’ fees were sharply curtailed.

Directors’ remuneration fell from €1.4 million in 2008 to €870,000 in 2009, a drop of almost 40 per cent.

The directors are five members of the McKenna family who are all shareholders in the company: Liam McKenna, Liam McKenna jnr, Dermot B McKenna, Sinead McKenna and Aidan McKenna.

John Doyle and company secretary Joseph Kelly, who are not shareholders in the company, are also listed as directors.

Remuneration for auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers was cut by more than half to €19,000 for the fiscal year 2009, down from €40,000 the previous year.

Power City, which operates eight retail stores in the greater Dublin area, increased its workforce slightly to 217 from 215 the previous year.

However, expenditure on wages and salaries fell from €5.6 million to €4.95 million in the year.