The businesses created by Happy Pear twins David and Stephen Flynn have lost 39% of their workforce due to the business impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Happy Pear outlets at Dublin airport and Clondalkin shut down during the first Covid-19 lockdown and will not re-open, while a third site at the Shoreline leisure centre in Greystones remains closed with plans to re-open as Covid-19 restrictions are loosened up.
The brand's flagship operation at Church Rd, Greystones continues to operate with Covid restrictions and new accounts show that pre-Covid, Flynn & Flynn Global Trade Ltd recorded revenues of €9.5 million in 2019 and employed 118 at the end of 2019.
However, finance director Paul Murphy said on Friday: “As a result of the significant impact of Covid-19 we were forced to restructure our business and now have 72 active employees.”
He added: “However we hope this number will grow in 2021 upon the reopening of our Shoreline site and the return of normal trade in our Church Road site in Greystones.”
Mr Murphy confirmed that “neither the Clondalkin or airport sites will reopen as our lease agreements have now been concluded”.
Profitable
Revenues figures for 2020 are not yet available but Mr Murphy stated that “despite the challenges, the business has been profitable at an operating profit level for the last six months of 2020”.
One highlight for the business last year was the success from the company’s online courses where 30,000 students signed up for the Happy Pear’s suite of health and cookery courses.
Mr Murphy stated “the online courses have grown significantly in recent years and now represent a core part of our business"
He stated that in 2019 revenues from ancillary activities - mainly online courses - totalled €843,000 “and this has grown by more than 100% in 2020”.
Expansion
The new accounts show that continued expansion costs in 2019 resulted in Flynn and Flynn Global Trade Ltd recording a post tax loss of €463,137.
This represents a 31 per cent decrease on the €672,970 loss recorded for 2018.
The 2019 loss takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €214,025.
Bakery
Mr Murphy said the business has expanded the offering at the Happy Pear’s site in Church Road in Greystones “through the installation of a new organic artisan sourdough bakery which has been very popular with locals”.
He said that towards the end of 2019, the company “commenced a structural review and commenced negotiations in respect of a licence agreement with Musgrave”.
The company entered into a long-term partnership, where Musgrave has acquired the responsibility for producing, distributing and marketing all Happy Pear packaged retail products for the island of Ireland. It also means The Happy Pear and Musgrave “will cooperate in researching and activating international markets globally".
As part of the licence agreement, The Happy Pear will continue to produce its in-house retail products for Musgrave under a long-term supplier agreement but other packaged retail products previously produced by outside contractors for Happy Pear now will be managed directly by Musgrave.
