Co Meath-based luxury chocolate maker Lir Chocolates last year recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.122m amidst challenging trading conditions.
New accounts show that the owners of the Lir Chocolates Ltd recorded the losses as revenues declined by €1.28m or 3% from €41.7m to €40.4m last year.
The directors state that “despite ongoing challenging trading conditions, the company expects to return to profit levels closer to those seen in previous years”.
The pre-tax loss of €1.22m followed a pre-tax profit of €236,714 recorded in 2024 – a negative swing of €1.5m.
Cocoa prices fell in 2025 from the high point seen in 2024 where in April 2024 globally the price of cocoa prices peaked and briefly exceeded a record of $12,000 per tonne.
By late 2024, prices were around $8,177 per tonne, which was still more than a three fold increase on the 2022 price of $2,300 per tonne.
The directors state that Lir Chocolates Ltd management “will continue to focus on improving sales and productivity and exploring relationships with further customers”.
Each year at Lir Chocolates’ Navan plant, Lir produced over 100 million individual chocolates.
The losses would have been even greater if Lir Chocolates had not recorded a gain of €56,642 arising from an insurance claim and a Research and Development (R&D) tax credit of €139,861.
The company recorded operating losses of €1.26m and net finance income of €40,806 reduced the losses to a pre-tax loss of €1.22m.
Numbers employed at Lir Chocolates last year decreased from 229 to 224 as staff costs decreased from €9.5m to €9.25m.
Directors’ remuneration reduced from €263,100 to €212,687.
A breakdown of the company’s revenues show that the UK is the company’s biggest market accounting for 73% or €29.46m in revenues while Republic of Ireland revenues accounted for 7% or €2.97m in revenues.
The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €965,352.
At the end of December last, the firm had €110.9m in shareholder funds. Accumulated profits totalled €5.9m. Cash funds increased from €3m to €4.6m.
On the risks facing the business, the directors point to the risk of increased interest rates, foreign exchange rates, commodity price risks, inflation and other factors having an adverse impact on customer sentiment in served markets.
They also point to the risk of inflationary increases in wages or infrastructural cost above sales price increases, impacting adversely on the competitiveness of the company and its principal customers.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
