PRE-TAX PROFITS at timber processing group Glennon Bros last year increased by 55 per cent to €5.8 million.
The Longford group won the industry section in the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year award last year. Results filed at the Companies Office show revenues increased 45.5 per cent to €85.5 million from €58.7 million in 2010.
Joint managing director Mike Glennon said yesterday that 2010 was “another difficult year in Ireland, but we managed to achieve a number of important objectives”.
These included doubling company exports to €20 million and keeping the Irish production facility on near full production “compared to 17 per cent lost days production in 2009, which is a considerable achievement given the collapse of the Irish housebuilding industry”.
Mr Glennon said a 56 per cent increase in turnover at the firm’s Irish operations “was completely eroded by the excessively high log costs in Ireland”. Log prices had continued to impact negatively on the business this year.
“The importance of a continuous log supply to the sawmilling sector cannot be emphasised enough bearing in mind the shortage of logs on the island of Ireland,” Mr Glennon said, warning of possible further adverse moves in the event of the sale of Coillte forests.
“This could have serious implications for our industry as log supply is critically tight and we rely on Coillte’s fortnightly auctions.
“We had a strong first six months of 2011 in the three UK businesses but demand in the second half [has] moderated with customer confidence abating. These factors will have some negative impact on the performance in 2011.”
The business started in 1913 in Longford and today also operates sites in Fermoy, Arklow, and Troon and Humbie in Scotland. Last month it announced a three-year deal to sponsor Longford GAA from the 2012 season.
