Pre-tax profits at the operator of what was first McDonald’s outlet in Ireland on Dublin’s Grafton Street last year fell by 29 per cent to €3.3 million.
Owned by Amir Afsar, Persian Restaurants Ltd operates 12 McDonald’s restaurants in Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford including the outlet on Dublin’s premier shopping street.
Accounts just filed show that revenues in the business edged up by 1 per cent from to €53.2 million in 2024. But pre-tax profits slipped to €3.3 million from €4.68 million the previous year.
Persian Restaurants also operates McDonalds restaurants at the Nutgrove Shopping Centre and the Frascati Shopping Centre in Dublin. The Grafton Street outlet is the State’s oldest McDonald’s, having opened in 1977.
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Pay to directors jumped by 72 per cent to €839,538.
At the end of December last, accumulated profits at the company totalled €22.47 million and the company had cash funds of €19.75 million.
Numbers employed by Persian Restaurants fell by 68 to 761 though staff costs increased from €14.76 million to €16.37 million.
Another McDonald’s franchisee, Elaine Sterio, saw pretax profits at her Glenellen Restaurants Ltd increase by 65 per cent to €1.62 million last year.
Mrs Sterio operates six McDonalds outlets in Balbriggan, Drogheda, Navan, Dundalk, Monaghan and Carrick-on-Shannon. Recently filed accounts for Glenellen show that its revenues increased by 8 per cent to €28.18 million.
Ms Sterio commenced working for McDonalds in 1989 while studying and worked her way up through the ranks in the business. She opened her first McDonald’s outlet at the age of 32.#
Mrs Sterio owns 75 per cent of the company in a business double act with her husband, Glenn who owns the remaining 25 per cent.
Staff costs rose from €7.38 million to €8.6 million as numbers employed by the business jumped by 126 to 433.
One factor in the sharp increase in profit was an exceptional charge of close to €500,000 the previous year relating to an alleged misappropriation of funds by a former employee.
