New accounts filed by the group’s holding company, Burtse Ltd, show the business’s pre-tax profits declined marginally after revenues increased by 45pc, or €25m, from €55.75m to €80.84m.
However, the group’s underlying profit was up sharply last year as the pre-tax profits of €16.94m for fiscal year 2022 were skewed by Government grant income of €5.87m. Last year, Government grants totalled €241,538.
The scale of the Fitzgerald operation in 2023 comes 55 years after the 23-year-old Louis Fitzgerald moved from Tipperary to Dublin to purchase his first pub on Dublin’s Townsend Street. It’s weekly revenues of £80 quickly rose to £560 per week.
The directors state the group “is in a strong financial position” and “management aims to increase the profitability of the company through increasing turnover and management of its operating costs”.
The accounts show the business repaid loans of €8.45m during the year. Loan repayments of €22.8m were made in the prior year.
The directors, Louis Fitzgerald and his wife Helen, state that last year gross profit margin increased from 70.8pc to 73.6pc. The two received zero pay last year from Burtse Ltd.
The two lead the family-owned Louis Fitzgerald group. Their children now take a prominent role in the running of the business.
The group’s businesses include well-known Dublin city centre pubs The Stag’s Head, Kehoe’s, Bruxelles, Gin Palace, Grand Central and The Quays in Temple Bar.
The group also operates An Poitín Stil, The Laurels, Palmerstown House, The Roost, Annie May’s, Carroll’s, The Arlington Hotel and The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel.
Numbers employed by the business increased by 70 from 841 to 911 as staff costs decreased by 20pc from €16.44m to €13.13m.
Burtse recorded the pre-tax profit after taking account of non-cash depreciation costs of €3.46m.
The firm had operating profits of €16.34m and paid out €173,044 in interest payments which were down sharply on the interest payments of €591,290 in 2022.
The hospitality group recorded a post-tax profit of €13.97m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €2.37m.
