Insomnia coffee brews up seven-fold increase in profits

Gordon Deegan

The firm behind the Insomnia coffee chain last year brewed up a seven-fold increase in pre-tax profits to €4.1 million.

New accounts filed by BHJ Holdings Ltd show that the group’s pre-tax profit increased by 640 per cent from €557,858 in 2020 to €4.1 million last year.

The group recorded the surge in profits as revenues increased by €2.76 million or 11 per cent, from €25.52 million to €28.28 million.

The profits for 2021 also take account of "other income" of €3.2 million, made up of Government Covid-19 Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) payments, which compared to €1.8 million in Covid-19 wage support payments received in 2020.

The directors said they were satisfied with the performance of the group in 2021 “and continue to monitor and manage the impact of Covid-19”.

On the Covid-19 on the business, the directors said that based on robust modelling of the impact of the crisis on trading for 2022 and 2023, the board was “confident in the resilience of the business model and access to sufficient cash flows and financing to allow the group positively face the challenges ahead”.

Insomnia has grown from a single location in a Galway bookstore in 1997 to an estate of over 170 coffee shops in Ireland and Britain, across a mix of company owned high street stores and through franchise partnerships with Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis, Maxol, Aramark and individual high street franchise owners.

The directors said the group plans to further develop and consolidate its existing activities in the coming year.

The group’s operating profits last year increased almost five-fold from €862,720 to €4.28 million. The operating profit takes into account non-cash net depreciation and amortisation costs of €1.89 million.

The group made a pre-tax profit of €4.1 million after paying interest charges of €165,690. The group had a post-tax profit of €3.68 million after paying corporation tax of €432,265.

The revenues for 2021 are still someway off the pre-Covid-19 revenues of €36.77 million for 2019.

The group’s Irish revenues increased by 11.6 per cent from €24.68 million to €27.55 million while UK revenues decreased from €834,875 to €726,925.

Numbers employed decreased from 463 to 433 as staff costs increased from €7.35 million to €10.65 million.

Shareholder funds at the end of last year totalled €6.93 million, including accumulated profits of €6.36 million. The group's cash funds increased from €1.15 million to €1.19 million.