*The Armada Hotel in Spanish Point.
THE SPANISH POINT hotel business operated by Mount Everest conqueror John Burke reached new heights last year when it enjoyed record revenues of €14.19m.
Mr Burke operates the Armada Hotel that overlooks Spanish Point beach in West Clare. New accounts for Armada Hotel Holdings Ltd show that pre-tax profits increased by 24 percent to €2.16m.
This followed revenues rising by 7 percent from €13.23m to €14.19m last year.
The hotel is one of the West of Ireland’s most popular hotel venues for weddings and Mr Burke said, “I am delighted to say 2024 has been our strongest year to date.”
Mr Burke climbed to the top of Mount Everest in 2017 and is part of a business double act where his wife and former Fair City actor, Aoibhin Garrihy operates the expanding Beo wellness brand with business partner, Sharon Connellan.
The two extended their Beo wellness brand last year with the opening of a new cafe outlet in Ennis, The Well with the cafe recently scooping two Clare Business Excellence awards including Best New Business for 2025.
On the 2025 performance for the Armada Hotel, Mr Burke said, “2025 has been a good year for us as revenues continued to rise. However, I should caution that it also proved to be a very challenging year overall. Margins on food and beverage sales are squeezed; payroll costs are outpacing sales and price rises”.
He said, “Consumers are paying enough already, so margins are coming under real pressure, and the food and beverage part of the business is seeing the most impact. Turnover remains strong, but business now is about managing all costs that can be controlled and focussing on running an efficient business so we can improve and develop our product and service standards”.
On the main challenges facing the business, Mr Burke said, “Rising costs in food and beverage is the biggest challenge. And while I believe we need to ensure our pay levels rise, there is a pressure point now with auto enrolment, sick pay, minimum wage, and it is the labour intense food and beverage side of the business that is seeing incredibly tight margins and overall cost pressures”.
Clare County Council has issued businesses with an 8 percent rates increase for 2026 and Mr Burke said: “Just two years ago we incurred a 300 percent rate increase during a revaluation across the region so to see another increase coming next year is very unfortunate timing coming as it will on the back of all other rising costs”.
Last year the firm’s rates bill more than doubled from rising from €54,150 to €131,644.
A breakdown of revenues show that the hotel’s largest revenue generator in 2024 was food at €5.5m, followed by accommodation at €4.7m and bar sales increasing to €3.2m. The profit for last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1m.
The business recorded an operating profit of €2.37m and net interest payments of €211,173 reduced profits to a pre-tax profit of €2.16m. The business enjoyed a post-tax profit of €1.89m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €269,942.
The expanded hotel enterprise is one of the largest employers in West Clare and numbers employed last year increased from 215 to 225 as wages costs increased from €4.94m to €5.4m.
Mr Burke said that numbers during the summer rise to over 250.
A detailed breakdown of the hotel’s costs show that the amount paid out to ‘bands artists’ totalled €114,473 while subscriptions to IMRO/SKY almost tripled to €39,882. Accumulated profits at the end of December last totalled €6.74m. The further capital investment in the business resulted in the book value of tangible assets increasing from €12.34m to 12.86m.
