The largest Domino’s Pizza franchisee on the island of Ireland paid a €3.8 million dividend to its shareholders last year in the run-up to the company’s remaining shareholding being acquired by its UK parent earlier this year.
Shorecal Ltd, which operates more than one third of the fast food chain’s restaurants in the Republic and Northern Ireland, was owned by Belfast businessman Charles and Adrian Caldwell until March when their stake was acquired by parent group Domino’s Pizza Group Plc. At the time, they were estimated to have walked away with €26 million in cash between them and €17 million worth of shares in the UK parent.
Filed recently with the Companies Registration Office, Shorecal’s accounts note that the Irish entity was acquired by the UK group after the end of the 2023 financial period.
In the run-up to the deal, after-tax profits at Shorecal, which operates 34 of the 99 Domino’s stores on the island, plunged by close to 38 per cent to nearly €4.6 million in 2023 from €7.4 million in 2022 due to rising administrative expenses and sales costs.
Revenues from pizza sales jumped 4 per cent in the year to €64.4 million.
But wages and salaries increased by nearly 20 per cent to €13.8 million in 2023 despite a reduction in staffing from 530 employees to 503 across the group. Finance costs, meanwhile, almost doubled in the year to €1.4 million due to a jump in interest payable to its lenders.
The directors paid a €3.8 million dividend to shareholders in the year, according to the directors’ report, down from €20.24 million in 2022. The highly profitable Irish company has paid out substantial dividends to shareholders throughout its lifetime.
Shorecal had accumulated profits of close to €15.5 million by the end of December, some three months before the takeover while its leasehold properties were valued at nearly €8.9 million.
The purchase of Shorecal is part of a wider strategy by DPG to aggressively grow its number of restaurants in both the UK and Ireland.
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