Post-tax profits at independent tour operator, Paddywagon, more than doubled last year to €402,513.
New accounts show that the post tax profits of €402,513 in the 12 months to the end of October last follow post tax profits of €161,848 in 2022.
The profit for last year resulted in accumulated profits of €2.3 million at the end of October last.
In the buoyant year for the business, the company’s cash funds increased from €1.87 million to €2.23 million.
The profits for 2023 and 2022 followed two years of Covid losses where the pandemic resulted in post-tax loss of €1.07 million in 2021 and a pre-tax loss of €1.33 million in 2020.
During 2023, the company invested in its fleet of trademark green buses with accounts showing additions of €1.5 million and disposals of €275,000 under 'motor vehicles'.
The accounts show that at the end of October 2023, the book value of the firm’s vehicles was €5.29 million.
The company operates the Kingdom Lodge in Killarney while it is now operating the Frantic Chef restaurant in Liscannor a short distance on the Wild Atlantic Bay from Ireland’s busiest natural visitor attraction at the Cliffs of Moher.
The Paddywagon business was boosted in 2023 with visitor numbers rebounding at the Cliffs of Moher and numbers at the visitor attraction to the end of May were 440,000 and are in line with 2023.
The firm offers Day Tours for all of the most popular attractions in Ireland including the Giant’s Causeway, Cliffs of Moher, Wicklow Mountains, Kilkenny, Connemara & Galway, County Kerry, Belfast City, Blarney Castle & County Cork.
Paddywagon is one of the best known brand names in Irish tourism where in 2024 the total estimated expenditure of the visitors here was €7.3 billion.
The firm increased its profits after its non-cash depreciation costs reduced from €1.17 million to €311,553.
The profits also take account of the disposal of €400,000 of shares in subsidiary undertakings and the corresponding reduction in value of financial assets from €400,000 to zero.
Numbers employed last year remained at the same level at 58.
The business was established by Cathal O’Connell in 1998 and last year pay to directors, Cathal O’Connell and Cormac O’Connell increased from €15,344 sharply to €172,337 that included a pension contribution of €1,807.
The company paid rent of €111,703 to parent firm, Paddywagon Holdings Ltd.
