The company behind property website Daft.ie and sales website DoneDeal.ie increased its profit after tax by a third last year, its latest set of financial results show.
Distilled Ltd, which runs online advertising services through various websites such as Daft.ie, DoneDeal.ie, Adverts.ie and Gumtree.ie, has filed accounts for the year ended December 31st, 2023, with the Companies Registration Office.
It made a profit before tax of €12.2 million, which was up from €9.5 million the year before. After tax, it made a profit of almost €10 million, which was up from €7.5 million, and which was transferred to reserves. Turnover came to €41.4 million, up from €36.7 million.
The parent company received dividends of €14.5 million in the year – down from €19.5 million – from its subsidiary undertakings during the year. The parent company declared and paid dividends of €13.9 million during the year.
The accounts show the group increased its headcount from 140 to 148, and increased spending on staff from €12.6 million to €14.2 million.
Brothers Eamonn and Brian Fallon are co-founders of the Daft.ie property website, which they established in 1997, when they were 20 and 15 years old, respectively.
They merged that business, along with sister company Adverts.ie, with Norway-based Schibsted Media Group’s DoneDeal.ie in 2015.
The resulting joint venture company, Distilled Ltd, is 50 per cent owned by the Fallons, who hold their shares through DML Capital Unlimited – also Journal Media’s ultimate parent company – and 50 per cent owned by Adevinta, a Schibsted spin-off.
Among the risks to the company, the directors cited a deterioration in general economic conditions or in the online advertising market.
It flagged other risks including the failure to adopt new advertising formats or to attract new users or monetise existing traffic.
The directors said they remained confident, however, that the risks would be mitigated by a continuing trend of advertising spend moving to online media.
They also pointed to continued investment in new value-adding products for users, as well as investments in new technologies to enhance user experience across its platforms, and the adoption of new advertising formats to meet the demands of advertisers.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
