Business

Dylan McGrath firm swings to profit after €2.25m debt write-downs

Business secured write-downs after entering Scarp process

Chef Dylan McGrath saw the company behind his Rustic Stone restaurant swinging to profit. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times

Gordon Deegan
Tue May 28 2024 - 18:17

The Dylan McGrath-owned firm behind Dublin restaurant Rustic Stone last year recorded profits of €2.75 million, chiefly as a result of debt writedowns.

New accounts filed by McGrath’s Prime Steak Ltd show the firm achieved debt writedowns of €2.25 million to connected firms arising from Prime Steak Ltd entering and successfully exiting the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (Scarp) in the 12 months to the end of June 2023.

The Scarp process allows small firms to restructure their debts and continue business as usual.

The profit for the 12 months to the end of June 2023 followed losses of €898,318 in the prior 12 months.

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The 2023 profit allowed the firm to reduce its accumulated losses from €3.1 million to €354,818.

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The accounts disclose that the amount Prime Steak Ltd owed to connected firm, Prime Steak Restaurants 2012 Ltd, reduced from €1.65 million to €185,943.

A note states that “transactions in the year include a write-off of amounts due as a result of Scarp”.

The amount owed to another connected firm, Home BVBR Ltd, reduced from €747,314 to €36,511.

The company employed 24 at the end of June 2023.

The accounts show that Mr McGrath was owed €97,077 by the firm at the end of June 2023, compared to zero one year prior.

When Prime Steak Ltd and Home BVBR Ltd entered the Scarp process in 2022, Mr McGrath said he was “confident the restaurants have excellent prospects going forward, once we reorganise the businesses through this process”.

At a recent Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment meeting on Scarp, principal officer at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Fiona O’Dea, said that to date, 62 small companies have availed of Scarp, “resulting in a significant number of jobs being saved thus far”.

Ms O’Dea said last year that Scarp saw a 50 per cent rise in notifications over the first year of operation, and outnumbered examinerships in 2022 and 2023.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times

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