Pretax profits at the group that operates Adverts.ie, Daft.ie and Donedeal.ie last year increased by 86 per cent to €8.42 million.
New accounts filed by Distilled Ltd show the business saw the surge in profits as revenues increased by 20 per cent from €28.12 million to €33.76 million.
The group also operates trade and service jobs website Gumtree.ie which it purchased from Marktplaats in February this year.
The business last year paid out a dividend of €15.37 million and co-founders of daft.ie, Brian and Eammon Fallon each have a 23.66 per cent share in the business. Based on their shareholding, they would have received a pre-tax €3.63 million dividend each from the payout.
The directors state that the group did not avail of any State relief in relation to Covid-19 during the year.
Figures provided by Distilled show that Adverts.ie boomed during the pandemic and today records 250,000 adverts per month.
The volume of the Adverts.ie business last year increased by 6 per cent, with this following growth of 22 per cent in 2020.
In 2022 to date, the Adverts.ie business has grown by 4 per cent.
Distilled SCH Ltd was established in 2015 after Daft.ie operations along with that of sister company Adverts.ie were merged with Norway-based Schibsted Media’s Donedeal.ie.
The deal left Distilled and Schibsted each with a 50 per cent shareholding in the group.
Staff numbers at Distilled increased by one to 134 last year as staff costs increased by 11 per cent from €10.55 million to €11.74 million.
Directors’ pay increased from €459,358 to €668,094.
The group’s shareholder funds totalled €96.66 million and cash funds decreased from €16.39 million to €14.85 million.
The profit last year takes account of restructuring costs of €112,468.
