Farming & Food

Sysco Foods Ireland sustains €78m Covid hit to revenue

Former Pallas Foods supplies food to thousands of hotels, shops, restaurants and pubs along with healthcare and educational facilities

Sysco Foods' Irish business saw sales fall by almost a quarter last year

Gordon Deegan
Tue May 31 2022 - 20:07

Limerick-based food service wholesaler Sysco Foods Ireland last year sustained a €78 million hit to revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accounts just filed for the Newcastle West-based Sysco Foods Ireland Unlimited show that the business – formerly Pallas Foods – recorded a pretax loss of €8.8 million in the 12 months to July 3rd last as the business grappled with the impact of Covid-19.

The US owned business – which changed its name to Sysco Ireland on May 10th last year – supplies food to thousands of hotels, shops, restaurants and pubs here along with healthcare and educational facilities and the figures show revenue fell by €78 million or 24 per cent from €326.4 million to €248.39 million.

The directors said the company had focused on sales to existing customers while operating in an industry that had been severely impacted by the Covid-19 global pandemic.

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The business was led by Dubliner Peter Jackson during the period. Mr Jackson was appointed chief executive of Sysco in Britain last January.

The directors state that gross margin remained at 23 per cent through a rigid cost-management process, strong relationships with company suppliers and a change in the product mix.

The pretax loss of €8.8 million followed a loss of €24.17 million in 2020. The 2020 loss was largely attributable to a non-cash impairment charge of €15.54 million. The pretax loss last year also takes account of interest costs of €4.59 million.

The business received €16.22 million in Covid-19 employee wage subsidy scheme payments last year on top of payments of €3.76 million the previous year.

Numbers employed fell to 1,241 from 1,281, while staff costs were 29 per cent lower at €28.27 million. Redundancy costs jumped more than fourfold from €1.1 million to €4.6 million.

The pretax loss takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €3.67 million and non-cash amortisation costs of €1.6 million. It also includes operating lease costs of €1.98 million and a €563,639 loss on sale of financial assets.

At the end of June last, the company had shareholder funds of €85.9 million that included accumulated profits of €41.12m. The company’s cash funds reduced from €12.54 million to €7 million.

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