British book retailer Waterstone's is making annual pretax profits of €1.475 million at its four outlets in the Republic, according to its latest accounts.

The chain, which is part of the HMV Group, had sales excluding valued-added tax of €25.53 million in the year to April 24th, 2004. It employed 121 sales staff in the year. HMV Group does not break down results from the Irish operation in its stock market filings, meaning that the Irish figures lag behind those publicly available for the parent group, which last week became the latest in a long list of British retailers to report difficult conditions in their domestic market.

A comparison for Waterstone's performance for the previous accounting period, to April 24th, 2003, is not strictly relevant because it reflects trade for only 28 weeks.

Sales were €12.4 million in that period, while the pretax profit of €1.474 million was only marginally behind the profit in the full year that followed.

Waterstone's has three outlets in Dublin and one in Cork. The Dublin stores include two shops facing each other on Dawson Street, which trade as Hodges Figgis and Waterstone's. The other is in the Jervis Shopping Centre.

There was no dividend to the company's parent in the year.

Waterstone's sister chain, the HMV Ireland music retailer, had pretax profits of €7.68 million on sales of €61.3 million in the 12 months to April 24th, 2004.

The accounts indicate that the group had total sales of €86.8 million and pretax profits of €9.15 million from its music and book outlets in Ireland.

A spokeswoman in London for Waterstone's said the chain was "always looking for further opportunities" but had no confirmed expansion plans for the Irish market.

The accounts show that the operating profit of €1.46 million was recorded after charging €1.47 million in lease rentals. The company had retained profits of €2.45 million on April 24th, 2004.

Two of its three directors - David Brian Rowntree, David Shaun Carney and Walter Pohli - received remuneration of €198,000, up from €66,000 in the previous 28-week period. The accounts did not specify which director did not receive payment during the year.

Management charges rose in the year to €726,000 from €39,000 in the previous period.