A fall in input costs after a post-pandemic spike widened profit margins at the main company behind the O’Neill’s sportswear and gear brand in the Republic in 2023.
Accounts filed recently by Balbriggan Textiles reveal that after-tax profits at the GAA kit-maker and supplier, which has manufacturing bases in Strabane, Co Tyrone, and Dublin, climbed by 70 per cent to more than €2.8 million in the year.
Gross trading profits increased by just 9 per cent in 2023 but the directors of the Walkinstown-headquartered branch of the group, which employed some 138 people in 2023, said costs had fallen substantially, widening the company’s profit margins.
In a note attached to the accounts, the directors said trading performance for the year “remained solid” with turnover in line with 2022.
“Gross profit margins improved with costs in raw material, packaging and distribution all falling from the inflationary surge in the previous year,” they said.
Still, the directors said the retail sector is “highly vulnerable” to external factors, including inflation and supply chain disruptions.
In separate accounts filed with the Companies House in the UK last year by the Tyrone-registered O’Neill’s Irish International Sports, the company reported a £1.6 million after-tax profit for 2023, unchanged from the previous year.
O’Neill’s employed some 800 people in Northern Ireland in the year, according to the filings, up from 760 in 2022.
Owned by brothers Paul and Anthony Towell and employing more than 1,000 people on the island, the company is best known in Ireland for its association with the GAA but has expanded its reach internationally in recent times.
Meanwhile, at GAA Congress last week, a motion was tabled that, if successful, would have removed the association’s rule that all playing gear and equipment must be made in Ireland.
Motion 39, which was withdrawn before it could be debated at the annual meeting in Donegal over the weekend, would have opened up the market to foreign sportswear and kit-makers such as Nike and Adidas.
