Nestlé made pretax profits of €6.31 million at its Irish unit last year, a period in which the food giant closed its chocolate crumb manufacturing plant in Mallow, Co Cork.

The business is responsible for sale, distribution and marketing in Ireland of food brands such as Nescafé coffee, Buitoni pasta, Purina Petcare and chocolate snacks such as KitKat, Aero and Smarties.

Newly-filed accounts for Nestlé (Ireland) Ltd and its subsidiaries show that the Irish business took an exceptional profit of €2.49 million on the transfer last November of its chilled dairy business to a joint venture controlled by Nestlé and French group Lactalis.

Annual sales fell to €172.9 million in 2006 from €178.04 million a year earlier, and annual operating profits were unchanged at €3.38 million.

Sales included €33.05 million from discontinued operations, and operating profits included €259,000 from discontinued operations. These were primarily related to the business in Mallow, which closed last July with the loss of 57 jobs.

The company made a €10.2 million provision in a previous year for the closure of the Mallow plant and for a payment to Dairygold to exit contracts for the purchase of milk from the co-op.

"All business units delivered sales growth in 2006, leading to continued improvement in company profitability," said the latest accounts.

"The focus of the business continues to the development of its core categories of confectionary, beverage, chilled foods and petfood, with emphasis on commercial expertise and execution."

Shareholders' funds rose to €27.03 million from €11.93 million with the help of an €11.78 million actuarial gain on the value of the company's pension scheme.