Porterhouse Group sustains revenue hit after sale of brewery to Conor McGregor

Gordon Deegan

The Porterhouse hospitality group sustained a €1.85 million revenue hit last year due mainly to lost revenues from the sale of its Porterhouse brewery to Conor McGregor.

The group operates Lost Lane off Dublin’s Grafton Street, and new consolidated accounts for Wavecrest Inn Ltd show that the group returned to a pre-tax profit of €511,244 in the 12 months to the end of February last year.

The group returned to a pre-tax profit despite revenues decreasing by €1.85 million or 6 per cent from €28.63 million to €26.77 million.

The pre-tax profit last year followed the group sustaining a pre-tax loss of €2.7 million in the prior mainly down to an exceptional cost of €2.55 million.

Director at the Porterhouse Group, Elliot Hughes said that the main reason for the decrease in revenue “was due to the sale of the brewery which resulted in reduced revenue overall”.

The Porterhouse group completed the sale of its brewery to McGregor in 2023 and Hughes said that during a normal year the brewery would contribute approximately €3 million to €4 million per annum “but fluctuated over the last few years” prior to the sale.

Commenting on last year’s return to pre-tax profit, Hughes said: “Overall, business has been good for us. We have seen growth within our bars across both drink and food and have seen that continue over recent months as well.

The consolidated Wavecrest accounts cover the group’ bars in Dublin - Tapped/Lost Lane/Hartys and Porterhouse Temple Bar.

He said that the accounts also cover the group’s London pub.

Hughes said last year “our best selling products have generally been our beers. Guinness as well as our own beers as well as Dingle Gin & Vodka which have improved as our late night business has improved”.

Hughes said that non-alcoholic drink sales accounts for about 2-3 per cent of drinks sales and “it is growing certainly and seems to be continuing to grow”.

On the main challenges faced by the business today, Hughes said: “The increasing costs of staffing - pension enrolment; sick pay & minimum wage - have put significant pressure on our business and others.

He said that “recently the increased cost of energy has been challenging as well while incremental price increases from suppliers are becoming more challenging to pass on”.

The group recorded the pre-tax profits last year after taking into account non-cash depreciation costs of €702,932.

The group recorded a post tax profit of €302,650 after incurring a corporation tax charge of €208,594.

At the end of February 2025, the group had shareholder funds totalling €19.54 million that included accumulated profits of €15.8 million.

Cash funds reduced from €3.49 million to €2.49 million.

The accounts show that ‘drink sales’ last year reduced from €26.04 million to €23.99 million while food sales increased from €2.58 million to €2.78 million.

The group generated €21.26 million of revenues here and €5.5 million in Europe.

Staff costs at the group last year reduced from €5.82 million to €5.58 million.