Freshmills Holdings, the company behind the grain business Drummonds, reported an operating profit of €1.3m, down 20% on the prior year, for the year ended 30 June 2016.
The company, which purchases more than 100,000t of Irish native grain, saw turnover fall 5% to €52.5m in 2016 to make a pre-tax profit of €1.2m during the year.
The company was a 50:50 joint venture between Freshgrass Investments (which is owned by Liam Woulfe and Thomas Browne) and Tipperary-based Liffey Mills.
Last September, following a review, Liffey Mills decided to sell its shareholding to its joint venture partners, Freshgrass, for an undisclosed sum.
Net assets at the business amounted to €13m. The company had sales of €2m in Northern Ireland.
The company, which operates from 6 locations across Louth, Meath and Kildare, employs 49 people. Staff costs amounted to €2.2m during the period.
In February this year, Drummonds established a new agribusiness, based out of Flynn’s premises in Mullingar called Drummonds–Flynn Agri.
Irish farmers pay double the interest rate of European counterparts