Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud expects to serve up a profit this year

The founder of one of Ireland’s best-known restaurants, Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, said on Thursday that the business was on course to return to profit this year after two years of Covid-19 related losses.

Patrick Guilbaud said: “Business is good. We are full all the time for dinner and lunch. From this year we will be back in profit which is good and we will make up for some of our losses.”

Mr Guilbaud was commenting on latest accounts for the restaurant’s Becklock Ltd, which shows that the business recorded a modest post-tax loss of €19,679 in the 12 months to the end of August 2021.

This followed €662,998 in post-tax losses in the 12 months to the end of August 2020.

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The Covid-19 enforced closure losses at the restaurant, housed in the five star Merrion Hotel in Dublin, followed record profits of €873,643 in 2019 and €524,952 in 2018.

Mr Guilbaud said that last year “was a very tough year”.

“We still have to be careful at what we do. Capacity is down due to Covid but we are booked out all the time. I don’t think we will be closing again.”

Mr Guilbaud said the restaurant recently retained its two Michelin stars which was “important to us” and it would continue to try to attain the third Michelin star. “We will always try. If we don’t try, we won’t get it.”

Mr Guilbaud said “the biggest challenge right now is to manage our staff but, to be fair, we have been very lucky that we have been able to keep our staff and they came back to us”.

At the end of August last, Becklock’s accumulated profits stood at €1.88 million. The company’s cash funds increased from €706,444 to €1.24 million.

Staff costs last year declined from €1.32 million to €823,523. Directors’ pay declined sharply by 73 per cent to €183,326.