Paul Costelloe’s profits recover after Covid lockdowns

One of Ireland’s best-known designers, Paul Costelloe, saw accumulated profits at his company grow to €1.71 million.

New accounts filed by Paul Costelloe Design Management Ltd show that the company recorded a profit after tax and dividends of €232,161 for the 12 months to the end of August.

That represented a more than doubling of profits from the previous year as the business recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Costelloe has also benefited from his link-up with Irish-owned retail giant, Dunnes Stores with his Paul Costelloe Living Studio range.

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However, in the year under review, Mr Costelloe conceded in an interview that his clothing line for Dunnes Stores had been badly hit by the pandemic when he said: “We didn’t anticipate the lockdown being so long.”

Uniform work

Mr Costelloe has been a feature on the Irish design landscape for decades and his career highs include designing a uniform for British Airways staff in 1992 that remained in service for a record 12 years; designing the Irish Olympic team uniform for the 2004 Athens Olympics; and designing the uniforms for the wives of the European Ryder Cup team from 2006 to 2011.

His company has delivered consistently strong profits after dividends and tax over recent years – €184,354 in 2019; €182,173 in 2018; €458,033 in 2017; and €236,649 in 2016.

Pay to directors last year declined from €438,315 to €374,841. The numbers employed remained static at seven with staff costs, including directors’ pay, slipping from €588,715 to €567,626.

The accounts show that €141,350 was payable to one of the company’s directors, Gerald Mescal, in respect of financial consultancy, accounting, management and office services provided by his firm.

The Dublin-born couturier, who first left Ireland at the age of 19 to “live off tins of ravioli” in Paris, soon became a royal favourite and designed many of Princess Diana’s outfits. Before he established himself as a world-renowned designer, Costelloe was selling bibles in Northern Ireland at the age of 15.