The Temple Bar owner clocks up sales of €4.64m in five months

The Temple Bar in the centre of Dublin. Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

Gordon Deegan

The group that operates one of the country’s most famous pubs, The Temple Bar in Dublin’s Temple Bar, recorded revenues of €4.64m in a five-month period last year.

In new consolidated accounts filed by Tom Cleary’s Hillbreak Ltd, they show the group recorded pre-tax losses of €5.14m in the five months and 10 days to the end of last October.

However, the losses arise from a group reorganisation as Hillbreak was only incorporated in May of last year and counts the operator of The Temple Bar, Temple Inns Ltd, as one of its subsidiaries.

The front of the iconic pub is one of the most photographed pub fronts in the country.

The losses for Hillbreak Ltd include non-cash amortisation costs of €6.2m.

The revenues at Hillbreak compare with pre-Covid 19 revenues of €23.1m at Temple Inns Ltd.

The Hillbreak group recorded an operating loss of €4.83m and net interest payments of €310,113 resulted in the pre-tax loss of €5.14m. The group benefited from ‘other operating income’ of €207,869 in 2022.

The new accounts put a book value of €48.94m on the group’s fixed assets.

At the end of last October, the group’s shareholder funds totalled €25.7m that included a share premium account of €31.9m offset by accumulated losses of €6.26m.

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The shareholder funds also include cash funds of €9.4m.

Mr Cleary continues to expand his business interests as his Chambers Properties Ltd currently has a planning application with Dublin City Council for a new 47-room boutique hotel facing onto Dame Street and Eustace Street.

The application involves the change of use of a building known as the Shamrock Chambers – which is a five-storey over-basement building comprised of a vacant restaurant, shop and vacant office – to a six-storey hotel.

The lodging of the plans follows Mr Cleary and Jackie Cleary’s Temple Inns Ltd last year paying out more than €11m for the Temple Bar Lane hotel, adjacent to The Temple Bar.

A planning report by Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, lodged with the new Chambers Properties hotel plan, has stated that the hotel site is “in the very centre of Dublin’s tourism offering in terms of attractions, entertainment, dining/drinking and culture”.

The Thornton O’Connor report has stated that the planned restaurant/bar will add to the vibrancy of Dame Street.

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