Pharmacy group’s losses fall by 75%

By Gordon Deegan

Monday, January 21, 2013

Pre-tax losses at the company that operates the McCabe pharmacy group narrowed by 75% last year to 3.4m.

Newly filed accounts for Behey Ltd also show a 2% decline in revenue from 55.36m to 54.2m for the 12 months to the end of Jan 2012.

The family-owned business operates 21 pharmacies across the country, with 16 located in Dublin, and also runs the Radisson Blu Farnham Estate Hotel in Co Cavan.

Numbers employed at the group last year increased by 26 to 430 and the filings show that the groups operating profits declined by 11% to 5.4m.

However, bank loan interest payments, totalling 5.4m, and non-cash depreciation costs of 2.3m, alongside asset impairments of 1m, contributed to the group recording its pre-tax loss.

The 13.8m loss recorded in the previous year chiefly arose from an 11.6m writedown in assets.

According to the directors report, "net margins in the pharmacy business are all down relative to the results in previous years".

It added: "These reductions are directly attributable to the significant reduction in reimbursement levels by the HSE for medicines dispensed to patients on their behalf and reduced dispensing fees from the HSE.

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Pharmacy group’s losses fall by 75%