Covid-19 quarantine deal helps hotel group to soaring profits

Gordon Deegan

A deal with the State to operate hotel Covid-19 quarantine facilities helped the Tifco hotel group record pre-tax profits of €10.9 million in 2021.

Tifco is one of Ireland’s largest hotel groups and the hotel group operates the Crowne Plaza Hotels at Dublin airport, Blanchardstown and Dundalk, the Hilton Hotel at Dublin Kilmainham, the Holiday Inn Express Dublin airport and a collection of non-branded hotels.

The hotel group secured a State hotel Covid-19 quarantine contract where the Crowne Plaza Dublin hotels were used exclusively under the contract.

Documents subsequently published by the Department of Health show that the official value of the initial three-month contract award to the Tifco hotel group to operate the quarantine system for visitors to Ireland was €5.4 million.

New accounts filed by Tifco Ltd show that the hotel group returned to profit after revenues more than doubled from €11.8 million to €25.38 million.

The pre-tax profit of €10.9 million for 2021 followed a pre-tax loss of €1.17 million for 2020 - a positive swing of €12.07 million.

In their report attached to the 2021 accounts, the directors state that “the provision of hotel quarantine services to the State contributed to the results for the year”.

They state that the group revenues of €25.38 million for 2021 “were still well below 2019 revenues of €36.5 million”.

The directors state that the company secured a number of contracts from State bodies during 2021 and these contracts continued into 2022.

The directors also state that they recognise that climate change may result in less international travel which will directly impact on the performance of the company.

The directors further state that while Government Covid-19 restrictions were removed in February 2022 and the hotels have experienced significantly improved demand, there remains some uncertainty on when business and leisure travel will return to historic levels.

Numbers employed by Tifco increased from 183 to 250 and staff costs reduced from €3.1m to €2.6m.

The accounts state that the staff costs “are net of Government wage subsidy”.

The loss last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €3.54 million.

At the end of 2021, the group’s shareholder funds totalled €129.08 million that included accumulated profits of €21.79 million.

The group’s cash funds increased from €2.74 million to €7.59 million.