The Covid-19 pandemic hit the sales of coffee and petrol in 2020 as both Bewley’s and Applegreen reported lower revenues for the year.
Turnover at Bewley’s dropped by more than half last year, from just under €144 million in 2019 to €67.7 million, the latest accounts show. Meanwhile sales at the Irish operations of Applegreen, which was taken private earlier this year by Blackstone Infrastructure Partners and management, fell by a quarter.
Bewley’s suffered last year because it is a big supplier to the stricken hospitality and hotel trade.
The group cut its staff numbers by more than half, with an average of 515 people employed by the company last year, compared with 1,047 the year before.
The company had a loss before tax of just under €6.5 million. This compared with a profit of €879,000 in 2019.
Advertisement
Bewley’s, which was set up in 1840, fought back against its café closures and focused its business on the growing grocery and convenience sectors. As a result, it said its group debt increased by only €100,000 in 2019.
In July last year Bewley’s was involved in high-profile court proceedings with its landlord Johnny Ronan, after his company sought rent arrears on the chain’s Grafton Street café. Bewley’s pays €1.4 million a year to its landlord.
The company’s long-time boss, Paddy Campbell, retired in December last year and at the time said that he would donate the art at the Grafton Street café to the people of Dublin.
A note in the accounts says the ownership of the stained-glass artworks by Harry Clarke, Pauline Bewick and Jim Fitzpatrick were transferred from Bewley’s café on Grafton Street to the parent company. They were valued at €2.2 million in December last year. The ownership of the Harry Clarke windows has been a subject of a longstanding dispute with landlord Ronan.
Petrol forecourt retailer Applegreen also felt the pain of the pandemic, despite the majority of its outlets remaining open throughout lockdowns.
Advertisement
The retailer, which reverted from a publicly limited company to a private one in March this year, recorded a 24 per cent fall in revenues to €2.3 billion as a result of lower traffic volumes. It reported a profit before tax of €19.3 million, down from €70.5 million the year before. In April last year sales fell by 56 per cent on the previous year, but rebounded when lockdowns eased.
The company operates nearly 500 sites across Ireland, the UK and America. Its Irish revenues fell by almost 25 per cent to €709 million, though it managed to limit the effect of the fall in sales by charging more for fuel and bumping up its margins. Its food sales slumped 28.5 per cent, but sales at its convenience stores rose 8 per cent due to “larger basket sizes”.
In December last year Applegreen’s founders, Bob Etchingham and Joseph Barrett, announced they would take the company private in a €694 million deal financed by Blackstone, the US investment giant. The pair retained an equity stake of more than 40 per cent.
According to the company accounts, Applegreen has bought carbon credits to offset a minimum 100,000 tonnes of carbon each year. The credits are used to fund clean water projects.