Rising retail prices for Mars Bars, Milky Ways and other chocolate consumer products in 2025 helped the Irish arm of Mars to enjoy record revenues of €152.36m.
However, new accounts for Mars Foods Ireland Ltd show that the rising cost of cocoa in 2025 blunted any profit growth as post tax profits remained flat at €27.67m.
The business generates revenues from four categories – food, chocolate, pet care and gum.
The directors state the business recorded an increase in turnover of 4% from €146.49m to €152.36m “arising mainly from chocolate pricing driven by inflationary increases”.
They state that however that the cost of sales increased by 8% from €105.4m to €113.59m “mainly from cocoa price inflation”.
They state that administration expenses decreased from €10.3m to €8.23m “as a result of good cost control”.
The directors also state that “overall profit after tax is flat year on year” as post tax profits dipped marginally from €27.99m to €27.67m.
The company paid out a dividend of €30m during 2025 and this followed a dividend payout of €15.56m in 2024.
In a post balance sheet event, the firm paid out a further dividend of €1.5m before June 30, 2026 from 2024 profits.
The company’s operating profits dipped slightly from €30.7m to €30.53m and interest payments receivable of €1.9m resulted in the pre-tax profit of €32.44m.
The pre-tax profit of €32.44m is a 2% decrease on the pre-tax profits of €33.02m for 2024.
Some of the firm’s best known brands here include Mars, M&Ms Bounty, Milky Way, Snickers, Starburst, Pedigree, Ben’s Original, Dolmio and Whiskas.
On the firm’s future developments, the board “recognises the continued market challenges in the sectors within which we operate and is committed to further strengthening the relationship we have with our key trading partners”.
The directors state that they consider that the company “is well placed to take advantage of changes in the marketplace and that recent levels of profitability will be maintained”.
They state that the business continues to monitor the ongoing changes in the UK and global inflationary increases.
At the end of December last, the company had shareholder funds of €52.8m that included accumulated profits of €51.95m.
Numbers employed increased from 43 to 45 were made up of 38 in selling and marketing and seven in administration. However, staff costs reduced from €10.1m to €9.14m.
Directors’ pay totalled €412,000 made up of €396,000 in emoluments and €16,000 in pension contributions.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
