Red Flag books €3m profit and prepares to pay large dividend to shareholders

Red Flag Consulting, a Dublin-headquartered communications group led by Karl Brophy and chaired by Gavin O’Reilly, booked a near €3 million profit last year on record revenue of €12 million, the company has confirmed.

This performance will result in the advisory group being able to pay a seven-figure dividend to shareholders, according to Mr Brophy, who owns 75 per cent of the business. “We’ve grown across all our categories, particularly technology, food and agriculture. Financial services was also strong, and we were strong out of the US,” he told The Irish Times, adding that the company has continued to perform well this year.

Abridged accounts just filed for Red Flag Consulting Ltd show it posted a profit of €2.4 million for the year to the end of 2022, down from €2.7 million a year earlier. It paid a dividend to shareholders of €588,534 for that year, which was down on the €765,663 paid a year earlier. Red Flag closed 2022 with retained earnings of €6.4 million.

No revenue figure is listed in the financial statements for 2022 but Mr Brophy said it was just over €11 million. Directors’ remuneration amounted to €691,724 in 2022, up from €454,431.

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Founded in 2013, the Irish company has offices in Dublin, London, Washington DC, Brussels and Cape Town and employs more than 50 staff. It recently appointed Brazilian Carolina Costa as the firm’s head of policy, based out of its Brussels office.

“We’re a fully integrated business with global teams working on large accounts,” Mr Brophy said.

A former journalist, Mr Brophy was the communications chief with Independent News & Media (now Mediahuis Ireland) when it was a listed company and led by Mr O’Reilly.

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