Five members of the Co Wicklow-based McKenna family have shared a €426,000 dividend from the Power City electrical goods retailer, whose annual pretax profits have fallen marginally to €8.2 million from €8.42 million.
The latest accounts of Power City Ltd also indicate that the five shared directors' remuneration totalling €783,839 with three other directors who are not shareholders in the company.
Best known for its in-your-face television adverts, Power City is one of the best-known indigenous brands in the retail sector. The company employs 194 staff at stores in Tallaght, Sallynoggin, Blanchardstown, Coolock, Finglas and Fonthill, near the Liffey Valley Centre in west Dublin.
The €426,000 dividend compares with a payment of €533,158 in the previous year.
The latest annual return indicates that Mr Liam McKenna, Mr Liam McKenna jnr and Mr Dermot McKenna jnr each received €106,500 in respect of their 25 per cent shareholdings, while 12.5 per cent shareholders Sinéad McKenna and Aidan McKenna each received €53,250.
Their remuneration as directors was not broken down and was shared with directors Joseph Kelly, John Doyle and Patrick Finnerty. Directors' remuneration of €783,839 was up from €726,800 in the previous year.
Records filed this week in the Companies Office reveal that the value of Power City's sales rose in the year to September 25th 2004 to €88.83 million from €87.33 million in the previous year.
With operating profits down to €8.18 million from €8.35 million, the company's operating profit margin fell to 9.2 per cent from 9.6 per cent.
The accounts also indicate that a loan or loans for €1.9 million to unnamed directors or a director, that were outstanding at the end of the 2003 financial year, were paid off in the period that followed.
Power City is in competition in the Dublin market from the Irish-owned group D.I.D Electrical, which has 11 stores in Dublin and Leinster, and from the British-owned group, DGS International, which has 15 Dixons, Currys and PC World stores in the Irish market.
While the arrival of new big-ticket products such has MP3 players, large format American-style fridges and flat-panel televisions have given a fillip to the electrical goods market, the established players face new competition from some of the major supermarket chains which are now stocking electrical goods such as toasters and microwave ovens.
With a retained profit of €6.52 million from business in the most recent financial year, the Power City accounts show that the company carried forward retained profits totalling €40.02 into the current year.
The company had €25.88 million in cash at the year end, up from €22.36 million, but no expansion plans were disclosed in the latest accounts. There were no significant events since the balance sheet was drawn up and Power City said no future material changes were anticipated as of last April, when the accounts were signed off.
The company paid corporation taxes of €1.25 million in the year, down from €1.27 million, while the value of its stocks fell to €7.15 million at year end from €9.09 million. The company did not make anyone available to discuss the accounts.
