Losses snowball at luxury Kilkenny retreat Mount Juliet
A plan to build more residential houses on the estate was recently shot down by Kilkenny councillors.
LUXURY FIVE-STAR resort Mount Juliet lost nearly €2 million last year, according to newly filed accounts for the business.
The Kilkenny retreat, which is owned by private equity firm Tetrach and set upon 500 acres of land, reported a loss of over €1.9 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2015, pushing accumulated losses to over €6 million.
Tetrarch’s hotel portfolio also includes a string of luxury properties including The Marker Hotel in Dublin’s Docklands, the Powerscourt Hotel in County Wicklow and Killashee House Hotel in County Kildare.
It bought Mount Juliet in 2014 for a reported €15 million and had big plans for the hotel and golf resort.
The investment group announced last year that it was spending €10 million on upgrading the hotel. It said it was adding 30 to 40 additional bedrooms and would put around €1.1 million into a new golfing facility.
It had previously said it wanted to attract the Irish Open back to the estate. The event was last hosted at the resort in 1995.
Golfer Rory McIlroy
Housing development
There were also plans to develop more private houses on the estate, but Kilkenny County Council blocked the bid last week.
Tetrach hoped to amend the local planning authority’s development plan so it could build 13 additional houses on the land.
It was only permitted to develop nine dwellings on the area in question. There are currently 75 houses on the estate.
Rejected Mount Juliet rezoning
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According to the Kilkenny People newspaper, local residents made 37 submissions during the public consultation process.
They were concerned that the larger development would hurt the estate’s natural environment. Councillors said the additional houses wouldn’t benefit the local tourism industry.
Although they welcomed the investment in revamping the resort, the amended proposal was unanimously rejected.
Risks
Mount Juliet’s newly filed accounts said there were “no significant events affecting the company” during the financial year ended 31 December 2015.
The directors’ report identified problems in the luxury hotel sector in Ireland and the hotel’s geographical location as two of the principal risks to the company.
“The directors are experienced and have a comprehensive business plan based around continued improvement of the product offering, which they are confident will deliver a robust operating performance going forward,” the report said.
The hotel resort reported sales of around €9.5 million for 2015. It slimmed down its staff from 136 employees in 2014 to 127 in 2015, which shaved about €309,500 off its staff costs for the year to just under €5 million.
