However, the firm, which is headquartered in Dublin, pointed to the impact of a shorter inter-county season on demand for jerseys.
“At this time of year, leading into the All-Ireland finals, there is always an increased demand for GAA county replicas,” financial controller James Towell said.
O’Neills produces the jerseys for Cork and Clare, who feature in this weekend’s hurling final. It also supplies the jerseys for Galway, who will face Armagh in the football final later this month.
The line-up of finalists is seeing a surge in interest in big counties that haven’t seen much success in recent years as Limerick and the Dubs dominated their respective codes.
For O’Neills, the mix of counties doing well directly has an impact on demand and output.
“We have regular production meetings to manage the fluctuations in demand for replica jerseys driven by the success of county teams,” Mr Towell said.
The business employs 1,000 people across its manufacturing locations in Ireland, which boosts its ability to be flexible ahead of those busy periods.
However, the GAA’s “split-season” model has made production “more difficult”, according to Mr Towell.
The model means that the GAA season is split between inter-county and club.
As a result, the shortened inter-county season sees both the hurling and football championships end in July rather than on the first and third Sundays of September.
“We have less time to make and sell the jerseys,” Mr Towell said.
“We have lost about seven to eight weeks of selling, which has led to an overall drop in sales of GAA replica jerseys in recent years.”
Cork and Clare will battle it out in Croke Park on Sunday. Photo: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
This year O’Neills is seeing an equal jump in demand for Cork and Clare replicas ahead of the match this weekend.
“For the football, there has been high demand for Galway in the last few days, but we will need to see how sales go in the next week to see how well the sales are versus other years,” he said.
At the end of the season, O’Neills expects replica jersey sales for Galway to be similar to 2022 when the county last featured in the final.
Cork last played in the hurling final in 2021, with a similar level of sales expected this year, he said.
O’Neills was founded in 1918, with the first O’Neills football produced on Capel Street in Dublin.
The company now supplies teamwear for more than 7,000 clubs across the world. This includes GAA, rugby, soccer hockey, boxing, basketball and athletics teams.
The business made a profit of €1.65m on sales of €13.25m in 2022, according to the most recent set of accounts filed for Balbriggan Textiles, the company behind the brand.
