*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
RETAINED LOSSES PRE-PANDEMIC OF €2.2m have been recorded for the Shannon Heritage sites under the operation of Shannon Airport Group.
Accounts obtained by The Clare Echo reveal that a profit has only been recorded in one year for the heritage sites since they fell under the ownership of the commercial semi-state company.
It is unclear if these accounts have been provided to either the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or the Department of Transport as part of the ongoing efforts to transfer the Shannon Heritage sites under the ownership of Clare County Council.
In September 2014, Shannon Castle Banquets and Heritage Limited (now Shannon Heritage DAC) became a subsidiary company of Shannon Group PLC now Shannon Airport Group.
At the time Shannon Castle Banquets and Heritage Limited had retained profits of €302,033 with loan owed to immediate parent company of €125,000. In 2019, prior to COVID-19, Shannon Heritage DAC had retained losses of €1,933,000 with a loan owed to immediate parent company of €5,050,000, a year in which it also won the tender to operate the Casino Model Railway Museum.
A profit has only been recorded in two of the eight years that the sites have been under the ownership of Shannon Airport Group (2014 and 2019).
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic impacted on business with retained losses of €6,353,000 with loan owed to immediate parent company of €9,213,000 reported in the accounts filed for 2021.
Last year, Shannon Heritage recorded total visitors at all company operated attractions of 495,520 while overall turnover increased by 62 percent from €3.7m to €6m “but remains significantly below the €19.7m recorded in 2019”. Minimal capital expenditure was incurred last year with a spend of €100,000.
Current directors of the company include Mary Considine, Rachael Leahy, Paul MacNamara and Ray O’Driscoll.
In response to queries from The Clare Echo on the capital infrastructure investment across all sites since 2015, the nature of these, a spokesperson for Shannon Airport Group stated, “In the period 2015 -19 (as reported in our Annual Reports) the Group invested approximately €6m capital expenditure in Shannon Heritage to upgrade facilities. In addition, the Group funded a voluntary severance scheme as part of restructuring the cost base. This investment by the Group enabled the business to return to profitability in 2019 i.e. pre pandemic”.
The spokesperson said “while negotiations are ongoing, it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about the details of the proposed transfer,” when asked if Shannon Airport Group was willing to contribute financial assistance to facilitate the transfer of sites given the “significant neglect of sites” flagged by Clare County Council in their due diligence report.
