Profits rise at Winthrop due to busy pipeline of data centre projects

Data centre builder Winthrop Technologies last year increased its underlying pretax profits by 9 per cent to €64.7 million, its latest accounts show.

Consolidated accounts for the Dublin headquartered Winthrop Technologies Ltd show that revenues rose by 22 per cent from €560 million to €685 million in the 12 months to the end of April last year.

The accounts also show that profits for the engineering group were hit by a €50 million exceptional loss concerning a company restructuring that was “incurred in the merger by absorption of a group entity”.

This resulted in a pretax profit of €14.7 million – down 75 per cent on 2021.

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The accounts state that the firm “has a strong order book for 2023 and beyond and a strong cash-generating capability”. It recorded post-tax profits of €12.3 million after paying corporation tax of €2.5 million.

The directors state that the results for fiscal 2022 were “ahead of expectation” and they expect to see “continued strong growth in future years”.

[ We don’t need fewer data centres. We need more electricity ]

[ Up to 82 data centres operating in Republic ]

On the company’s website, it states that “we are currently constructing multiple turnkey data centre projects in nine different European countries, equating to over 300MW of IT load in flight”.

The business paid a dividend of €72.6 million last year, which followed a payout of €60 million in the prior year.

The company is controlled by founder and majority shareholder Barry English, while former Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley was appointed as a director in January 2022 and chairs the board.

The business is led by chief executive and shareholder Anne Dooley. A mechanical engineer, Ms Dooley joined Winthrop in 1997 during its start-up phase.

Employee numbers increased from 457 to 598 as staff costs rose sharply from €48.9 million to €69.7 million. Pay to directors increased from €438,479 to €609,794.

On the risks facing the business, the directors state that the group faces increasing energy and material costs.