Limerick-based medical device firm says it will ‘pass on Trump tariff costs to its US customers’

Gordon Deegan

The costs associated with the ‘Trump tariffs’ will be passed onto the US customers of US medical device firm, Cook Medical where possible.

That is according to the directors at one of the largest employers in the Midwest, Cook Ireland Ltd which employs 664 at Limerick’s National Technology Park.

New accounts show that Cook Ireland returned to pre-tax profit to record pre-tax profits of €13.95 million in 2024 compared to a pre-tax loss of €5.4 million in 2023.

The return to profit for the US headquartered firm followed revenues increasing by 12 per cent from €127.14 million to €142.96 million.

The company had a post tax profit of €17.35m after recording a corporation tax credit of €3.4 million and this arose chiefly as a result of a €4.75 million Research and Development (R&D) tax credit.

The company's R&D spent last year was €25.7m and numbers employed increased from 662 to 664 as staff costs decreased slightly from €41.72 million to €41.69 million.

Aggregate pay to directors almost doubled from €750,607 to €1.4 million as the number of directors increased from three for the bulk of 2023 to five last year.

The company paid dividends last year of €500,000 compared to a dividend payout of €1.8 million in 2023.

In their directors; report which was signed off ahead of President Trump and the European Commission reaching an agreement on a 15pc tariff for EU goods on July 27th, they state that “based on the 10pc tariff currently in place on shipments between our European manufacturing sites and our US distribution entities, management does not foresee a significant direct impact on the entities' business activities or its going concern”.

In the report signed off on July 14th, the directors state that “there has been no change in the sales prices of the European manufacturers relating to the tariffs and currently the position of the US group entities is that the extra tariff being borne by them, will be passed on to the customer where possible”.

They add that “cost saving initiatives are also being actioned to make up any difference between the extra tariff cost and what can be passed to the US based customers”.

Separate accounts for the Limerick based Cook Medical EMEA Group show that the company recorded a post-tax loss of €93.5 million in 2024.

The group has two manufacturing plants in Limerick and in Denmark and the loss arose mainly from a €166 million tax charge connected to a Danish tax matter specific to Cook Denmark International Holdings ApS.

Revenues at the group last year increased by six per cent from €798.49 million to €849.63m as pre-tax profits increased by 52 per cent from €61.9 million to €94.57 million.

Numbers employed reduced from 2,278 to 2,191 as staff costs reduced from €194.63 million to €190 million.