Retained profits at businessman Dr Edward Haughey's Norbrook Manufacturing slipped by €400,000 last year, the latest figures show.
The company's balance sheet for July 29th, 2005, recently lodged with the Companies' Registration Office (CRO), shows that the profit and loss account stood at €21.03 million, compared with €21.47 million 12 months earlier. This led to a similar dip in shareholders' funds to €21.15 million on July 29th from €21.6 million a year earlier.
Monaghan-based Norbrook Manufacturing produces ingredients used in Dr Haughey's veterinary pharmaceuticals business in Newry, Co Down.
Retained profits at another group company, Norbrook Laboratories (Ireland), grew by €416,000 to €3.103 million from €2.597 million over the same period.
Both businesses are classed as small companies and are only obliged to file balance sheets with the CRO and do not have to make their full profit and loss accounts publicly available.
The businesses are parts of the former Fianna Fáil appointed senator and now Unionist peer's Norbrook Pharmaceuticals which is based in Newry.
Norbrook Manufacturing's accounts show that its biggest debtor in 2005 was its sister operation, Newry-based Norbrook Laboratories, which is a separate company to Norbrook Laboratories (Ireland) and is registered in Northern Ireland.
At the end of the year, Norbrook Laboratories owed Norbrook Manufacturing €16.6 million. Notes to the accounts state that the Monaghan company sells substantially all its products to Norbrook Laboratories, and the debt was money owed as a result of such sales.
It did not carry any interest and was not subject to any specific repayment terms. During the 12 months to July 29th, 2005, the company made sales of €2 million to Norbrook Laboratories in Newry. It also paid it a management fee of €30,000. In turn, Norbrook Laboratories (Ireland) paid the manufacturing business a management fee of €45,000.
The Norbrook group is headquartered in Newry. It develops, manufactures and sells veterinary pharmaceutical products. Its markets include the entire island of Ireland, Britain, Europe and the rest of the world.
The company says that its products sell in 110 countries worldwide and manufactures 800 products.