Profits double at Bord na Mona

Bord na Móna nearly doubled pre-tax profits and cut its borrowings almost in half last year in what the company called one of its most successful years to date.

The State company also completed a strategic review that called for an injection of cash to fund acquisitions and R&D. With the Government cutting back on spending, any investment is likely to come from private sources.

The company is talking to Government about implementing its strategic plan, although a spokesman said it had not indicated a preferred method of ownership.

Chief executive Mr John Hourican said the future would be built on the group's growing environmental and diversifying energy business, while maximising the potential of its fuels and horticulture operations. "That development will most likely come both through organic growth and significantly by acquisition," he said.

Chairman Mr Peter Malone said realising the potential of the environmental business would become a priority for the group.

In the year to March 27th, it recorded profit after tax of €16.3 million, 93.5 per cent ahead of the previous year. Sales were up 5.6 per cent at €227.6 million. The company cut its gearing to 24 per cent, paying off €30.8 million of its €61.1 million borrowings.

Each of the company's four divisions produced an operating profit. The fuels division, which supplies the residential market with briquettes, coal and oil, remains the largest contributor to sales, although turnover fell nearly 10 per cent last year.

Bord na Móna Energy, which produces the milled peat supplying peat-fired power stations, and manufactures briquettes and moss peat used by the horticulture division, saw a 12.4 per cent rise in third-party sales to €64.2 million. It is developing plans for a 210-turbine wind farm in Mayo.

Bord na Móna Horticulture saw sales rise 23 per cent to €41.6 million, of which 90 per cent was exported, while turnover in the environmental division rose 38 per cent to €25.5 million largely on the back of the performance by wastewater treatment group Brightwater in Britain.