ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS (Ireland) Ltd, the Irish subsidiary of the owner of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail, has reported a €1.5 million pre-tax profit for the year to the beginning of October 2011.

However the company, which provides editorial, sales and administrative support services to the Irish editions of the two titles, remains dependent on the continuing support of its parent.

Pre-tax profits in the previous year were €1.4 million.

Turnover increased by 2.4 per cent to €19.39 million during the 2011 financial year, according to accounts just filed. Operating profits increased by 9.6 per cent, to €1.6 million.

The company’s principal source of revenue is its service contracts with Associated Newspapers.

The company had accumulated losses of €62.9 million at year’s end but had share capital of €12.2 million and other reserves of €51.6 million, making for a shareholders’ surplus of €946,998.

The average number of people employed during the year was 147, up from 145 the previous year.

Payroll was also up, to €11 million, from €10.8 million the previous year. Directors’ fees increased slightly, to €490,913 from €432,232.

Associated Newspapers is controlled by Viscount Rothermere, the chairman of the ultimate parent company of the Mail group, Rothermere Continuation Ltd, which is a Bermudan company.

Joint National Readership figures for 2011, published in January, showed the Irish Daily Mail’s average daily readership was 145,000, down 3,000.

The Irish Mail on Sunday saw its readership increase, recording an average of 338,000 readers per issue, up 9,000. It was among a number of newspapers that benefited from the demise of the News of the World.