AFTER A HIATUS of nearly four years, the company behind the upmarket Shanahan’s On The Green American steakhouse and seafood restaurant has filed a clatter of accounts.

The financial statements filed by US-based JMS International Holdings Ltd show losses at Shanahan’s continued to mount in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The company, controlled by successful Irish-American entrepreneur John Shanahan, made a loss of $294,080 in 2010 – just under half the deficit recorded in the previous year.

The improvement in its bottom line performance was almost entirely due to reduced staff costs. Its gross profit was flat at $1.28 million, while staff costs declined by 18 per cent to $1.46 million.

In 2008, staff costs amounted to $2.57 million. Staff numbers over the period have reduced from 72 to 41, as the recession has continued to bite.

JMS had accumulated losses of $12.6 million at the end of 2010 and has been in the red every year since its incorporation in 1998, when Shanahan took over the Georgian townhouse at 119 St Stephen’s Green.

Shanahan, who has dual Irish and US citizenship, is owed a meaty $11.8 million by JMS.

JMS, which is a branch of a company based in Delaware, tends to file its accounts for three separate years at the one time. It did the same thing in 2008, having not filed any accounts for three years.

According to its website, Boston-born Shanahan’s vision for the posh restaurant was to “capture the opportunity to bring together his love of cooking and gourmet fare with his passion for Ireland and the heritage which he has always credited as the source of his creative spirit”.

Judging by its accounts, it certainly wasn’t to make a profit.