Powerscourt hotel resort returns to profit

Gordon Deegan

The five-star Powerscourt hotel resort near Enniskerry in Co Wicklow last year returned to profit to record pre-tax profits of €2 million.

This followed revenues at hotel firm, Sugarloaf Ventures Ltd increasing by 46.5 per cent to €14.2 million.

The pre-tax profit followed a pre-tax loss of €2.53 million in 2020.

Covid supports

The hotel business - which was shut for the first five months of last year due to Covid-19 restrictions - recorded the pre-tax profit only after receiving ‘other operating income’ of €3.89 million.

This was made up of Covid-19 wage supports of €3.76 million and Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) subsidy of €135,000.

The directors’ report states that “as and when permitted to trade under Government guidelines, the hotel has traded well and the directors are confident that the hotel will return to full trading capacity in the medium term”.

The resort is part of the MHL Collection, a consortium led by US billionaire John Malone, and was purchased for over €50 million in 2019.

The MHL Collection was formed by its three partners, Mr Malone, Paul Higgins and John Lally and today operates 10 hotels across the country including seven in Dublin.

MHL is the second-largest hotel group in Dublin city with over 1,350 five and four-star bedrooms and its hotels include the five-star Westin and the five-star Intercontinental hotels.

A breakdown of the Powerscourt hotel's revenues show that accommodation income totalled €7.2 million while ‘food and bar’ income totalled €4.7 million and ‘other’ income amounted to €2.28 million.

Numbers employed at the hotel resort last year increased from 148 to 217.

The hotel firm’s corporation tax liability would have been €251,648 based on the 12.5 per cent corporation tax liability. However, the liability was reduced to zero as a result of losses carried forward.