Pre-tax profits fall 18% at Irish arm of Sysco Foods

RTÉ News​

26-05-2025

The Irish arm of US food giant, Sysco Foods last year paid out €7.59m to acquire Dublin based food business, Ready Chef Ltd.
That is according to new accounts for the Co Limerick based business - formerly Pallas Foods – which show that Sysco Foods Ireland UC's pre-tax profits declined by 18% from €29.04m to €23.76m in the 12 months to the end of June 2024.
Profits declined as revenues increased by 5% from €574.8m to €603.2m.
The business - which has its head office here at Newcastle West in Co Limerick - supplies food to thousands of hotels, shops, restaurants and pubs here along with healthcare and educational facilities.
The business operates from a central Dublin location and seven regional centres and expanded last year with the purchase of Ready Chef Ltd.
The most recent accounts filed by Ready Chef Ltd, which was developed and owned by William Tallon and David Tallon, show that revenues increased from €18.9m to €23.79m in 2023 as the Glasnevin based manufacturer and distributor of fruit and vegetables recorded pre-tax losses of €1.64m. In 2023, the company employed 101.
The 2023 loss chiefly arose from directors' pay increasing from €365,459 to €2.46m which was mainly made up of pension contributions of €2.25m.
At Sysco Foods Ireland, numbers employed last year increased by 35 from 1,497 to 1,532 as staff costs rose from €59.74m to €63.49m.
The directors state that in achieving the revenues, the company focused on sales with existing customers through its range of products and quality of service.
The directors state that the gross margin remained at 24% for the period and this was achieved through a rigid cost management process, strong relationships with company suppliers and a change in the product mix.
The strong profits of 2024, 2023 and 2022 at Sysco Foods follow Covid-19 related pre-tax losses of €8.8m in 2021 and €24.17m in 2020.
Operating profits last year decreased by 17.5% from €33.33m to €27.53m and net interest payments of €3.76m reduced profits to a pre-tax profit of €23.76m.
The business recorded post tax profits of €18.99m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €4.77m.
The accounts show that staff numbers were made up of 1,282 in sales and distribution, 249 in administration and one director.
Five directors served during the year and aggregate directors' remuneration totalled €443,181.
The pre-tax profit last year takes account of net non-cash depreciation costs of €5.67m and non-cash amortisation costs of €944,307.
The loss also takes account of operating lease costs of €1.63m and a foreign exchange loss of €2m.
At the end of June last, the company had shareholder funds of €144.27m that included accumulated profits of €100.48m.
The company's cash funds decreased from €17.5m to €11.6m.