Amazon’s main Irish unit reports € 39.7m in pretax profits

Revenues at the main Irish arm of online giant Amazon have more than doubled over the last two years as the subsidiary recorded pretax profits of €39.7 million.

New accounts filed by Amazon Data Services Ireland Ltd (ADSIL) show turnover jumped to €2.48 billion last year, up from €1.65 billion in 2018 and €1.1 billion in 2017.

ADSIL, which provides data hosting services to other group businesses, paid corporation tax of €11.7 million, on a par to what it shelled out a year earlier.

Administrative expenses rose to €2.4 billion from €1.6 billion a year earlier, the accounts show.

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Close to 300 new employees joined the company last year pushing up total headcount at the Irish operation to 1,575 from 1,277. The increase in employee numbers led to a jump in staff costs, which rose to €195 million form €151 million in the prior year.

The accounts reveal the subsidiary has financial commitments of nearly €125 million relating to properties.

Amazon recently received planning permission for a €350 million 28,573 sq ft data centre in Drogheda. It is one of a number of such data centres the company has in or close to Dublin. This also includes a €1 billion centre in Mulhuddart.

A second Irish unit, Amazon Ireland Support Services Limited, which employs more than 1,100 people locally, recorded a €4.2 million loss last year, up from a loss of €3.5 million a year earlier.

The subsidiary, formerly called Amazon CS Ireland Limited, operates a customer support centre in Cork that recorded turnover of €152 million last year, up from € 119 million a year earlier.

Overall, the company employs 1,131 people and in 2019 it recorded staff costs of €56.1 million.