Doonbeg owners 'behind project'

THE US owners of the exclusive Doonbeg golf resort say they remain fully committed to the project in spite of pre-tax losses at the resort increasing by 28 per cent to €7.7 million last year.

The luxury resort on the Clare coastline staged Andrea Corr’s wedding last year.

Documents just filed with the Companies Office show that revenues plunged by 58 per cent from €19 million to €7.8 million.

The pre-tax loss last year follows the company – Doonbeg Golf Club Ltd – making a pre-tax loss of €6 million in 2008.

Parent company Kaiwah Development Partners (KDP) has to date invested €69.7 million in the resort that includes the award-winning Greg Norman designed links course. Its chief operating and finance officer, Townsend Clarkson, said yesterday that the cash loss at the resort last year was €4.6 million.

“We continue to view Doonbeg as both a long term investment and an opportunity,” he said. “We believe that Doonbeg is poised to prosper in a future economic recovery.”

Mr Clarkson added that bed nights at Doonbeg increased by 60 per cent last year and had increased again by 30 per cent in 2010.

The sharp drop in revenues last year is as a result of company not selling any of the remaining eight suites in 2009.

Asked when he expected Doonbeg to break even, Mr Clarkson said: “Based on the activity growth that Doonbeg has achieved in the past several years and the cost-savings measures implemented, we expect significant movement towards this in the next two years.”

He added: “Of course we would have preferred better results over the past few years. However, based on the global recession and weakness of the dollar, we believe Doonbeg performed better than expected in light of the current operating environment.”