One of the country’s largest school building firms, Stewarts, said yesterday it was “very happy” with how the business performed last year as pre-tax profits fell by 31 per cent to €223,623.
Accounts lodged by the main company for Stewarts, JSL Group Ltd, show the company recorded the drop after revenues dipped from €22.3 million to €22 million in the 12 months to the end of April last.
Stewarts’s business development manager, Rachael Stewart, said yesterday the group was “very happy” with the performance.
The Galway-based firm, which started up making church pews, is 110 years old.
The directors’ report for 2011 says the firm “continued to record satisfactory levels of activity and trading margins”.
A great-granddaughter of company founder James Stewart, Ms Stewart said: “Our aim is to sustain that level of turnover, but it is very competitive where margins are very tight.”
Currently, the group is building six schools and four Aldi outlets that will bring to 41 the number the firm has completed for the German retailing giant.
