Business

Travelodge firm made €8.7m profit last year after State contract win

Company secured contract to house International Protection applicants in 2022

The Travelodge firm won a State contract in 2022. Photograph Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

Gordon Deegan
Fri Dec 8 2023 - 17:06

A Travelodge firm recorded a pretax profit of €8.65 million from operating a Dublin hotel exclusively for International Protection (IP) applicants last year, while a separate firm set up less than two years ago to accommodate refugees has already proposed to pay a multimillion euro dividend.

Pumkinspice Ltd secured a contract in early 2022 from the State to house IP applicants at its newly constructed 393-room hotel on Townsend Street in Dublin 2.

The directors say “the hotel secured a State contract and traded exclusively under this contract in 2022”.

New accounts for Pumkinspice Ltd show that in its first year to trade, the hotel firm recorded revenues of €18.54 million last year from the State contracts.

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Giving an insight into the cost of constructing hotels in the capital, Pumpkinspice directors said the firm’s capital costs totalled €74.6 million at the end of 2021, just over two weeks before the hotel opened on January 17th, 2022.

Underlining the earnings that accommodation providers can earn from accommodating IP applicants on State contracts, the company’s Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Tax and Amortisation (EBITDA) totalled €12.15 million for the year.

The company continued with the State contract until April of this year when it opened to trade as a hotel with the public.

Last year, the company employed 59 and staff costs totalled €2.4 million.

The company recorded a post-tax profit of €8.25 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €405,064.

Separately, accounts show that a Dublin-based business set up only in January of last year to accommodate refugees is already paying dividends for its owners.

Heronwell Ltd – established by Lucan businessman Derek Scully – was incorporated on January 25th, 2022 and last year received €9 million from the State for accommodating Ukrainian refugees.

Now, in the first set of accounts filed by Heronwell, it shows it recorded post-tax profits of €3.963 million for 2022. The accounts show the business proposed to pay a dividend of €3.9 million to shareholders from the 2022 profits, leaving accumulated profits of just €63,332 at the end of 2022. That firm re-registered as an unlimited company this week where it is no longer required to file annual accounts to the Companies Office.

Recent Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth figures show that the combined bill for the first six months of this year for accommodating Ukrainians and International Protection applicants is €850 million.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times

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