K Club reports €2.2m loss for 2022 amid staffing boost

The owners of the K Club resort in Co Kildare say they are keeping a “close eye” on rising inflation and the cost of living crisis, after losses at the company behind the hotel and country club widened in 2022.

Bishopscourt Investments is controlled by nursing home investor Michael Fetherston, who bought the elite resort in 2020 from Michael Smurfit. It reported after-tax losses of €2.2 million in 2022, up from around €1.9 million in 2021, amid a substantial increase in staffing numbers and costs.

Recently filed consolidated accounts for the group that includes the hotel and two golf courses on the site in Straffan, Co Kildare show that turnover reached almost €24.5 million in 2022, its first full-year of post-pandemic trading, up more than 68 per cent on 2021.

However, sales costs almost doubled from €8.5 million to €16.5 million in the year, as the resort operator ramped up staffing in the wake of the pandemic. It took on an additional 100 staff in 2022, bringing its headcount to 255 and increasing staffing costs from €6 million to €10.2 million over the 12 month period.

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Accumulated losses at the K Club group stood at more than €60.4 million at the end of the year.

In a report attached to the accounts, the directors said they are keeping “a close eye” on the path of inflation and are monitoring the situation on a monthly basis.

They said the group’s activities expose it to “market risks” given the degree of competition in the market, and that its managers pay “close attention” to market research and recruitment.

Mr Fetherston, who owns the TLC chain of nursing homes, has invested in the resort since acquiring it from Mr Smurfit for around €65 million in February 2020. He hired Paul Heery, the former general manager of JP McManus’s Adare Manor, to run the business and has added new facilities, including a new bar and restaurant with a terrace overlooking the Palmer South course at the resort.

The new restaurant opened in March. Mr Heery told Hospitality Ireland at the time that it would create an additional 30 jobs on-site. He also said that recruitment remained a challenge for the group post-Covid, “specifically, getting people back into the industry who may have previously left it”.

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