The company that operates the National Ploughing Championships (the Ploughing) recorded combined losses of €1.25 million during two pandemic-hit years when the event had to be cancelled.
New accounts filed by the National Ploughing Association of Ireland (NPA) show that, in 2021, the company recorded pre-tax losses of €600,353 when the event was cancelled for a second year due to Covid-19.
This followed losses of €656,240 in 2020, the first year it was impacted by the pandemic.
In 2019, the NPA recorded revenues of €5.6 million after 297,000 people attended the Ploughing at Ballintrane, Fenagh, Co. Carlow in what was its 88th year.
Commenting on the 2021 financial performance, NPA assistant managing director, Anna Marie McHugh said “the losses are what they are”.
“The National Ploughing Association is a national voluntary association limited by guarantee – we have no shareholders and we are self funding – we don’t receive any government grants to run the event,” she highlighted.
Ploughing ahead
Last year, the NPA’s administrative expenses stood at €1.1 million. Commenting on this, Ms. McHugh said: “During Covid-19, we still had to run the NPA and support our club and county ploughing associations.”
She said that one national ploughing championship, for example, costs in the region of €6-€7 million to stage.
The loss last year reduced the NPA’s accumulated profits from €12.3 million to €11.7 million.
Ms. McHugh said: “The NPA has always endeavoured to have enough reserves to run one, maybe two, events. This rainy-day fund had to be tapped into during Covid and that is what it was for.
“The reality is that if the NPA did not have these reserves, without any government funding, we would have run the risk of financial ruin as a result of Covid. But that has not happened and we are back and as strong as ever, thankfully.”
Ms. McHugh stated that the Covid-19 pandemic “had a massive financial impact on the NPA”.
“We were not eligible for the events-industry grants, which would really have helped when the NPA had absolutely no revenue for almost three years,” she said.
The NPA was, however, eligible for the wage-subsidy scheme: “So we managed to keep all our staff, which was massively important to the NPA as our work is quite specialised.”
The NPA’s losses last year would have been far higher but for ‘other operating income’ of €545,695 that included: €391,171 profit on the sale of investments; wage-subsidy scheme payments of €79,524; and a government grant of €75,000.
The ‘other operating income’ was offset by a non-cash loss in value of €165,898 in investments.
The Ploughing 2022 – better than ever
Ms McHugh said: “We are very cognisant of the losses – of course – it’s a lot of money and we are endeavouring to save costs wherever we can this year without impacting at all on the event, but we have the reserves and they are being used to produce the Ploughing experience exactly the same as we have done over the years.”
She said: “Honestly we are absolutely delighted with the way the event is shaping up. We had no idea how our exhibitors and patrons would respond to the return of the event after a full three-year gap.
“We have been blown away by the demand for exhibition space and ticket sales to date. Already, the event is very close to being as big as ever, which we would never have expected.”
However, Ms. McHugh doesn’t expect the NPA to return to profit this year.
“No I would not anticipate that the Ploughing will make a profit this year – hosting the world contest adds costs in the region of €1.5 million and there is no real financial return on that – obviously there is a massive status associated and it is brilliant for tourism but no financial gain for the Ploughing.
“Also, the NPA did add 15% to the cost of exhibits this year in anticipation of increased costs of running the event but those rates were set in February and rates across the board for everything have skyrocketed and inflation has just soared – our costs this year will definitely exceed our expenses even with the bumper event that this year is shaping up to be.”
“All that said, it is never about profit for the NPA,” Ms. McHugh said.
“As I say, we are a national voluntary association and if the event breaks even, the board is satisfied.”
This year’s National Ploughing Championships are set to take place at Ratheniska, Co. Laois from September 20-22, inclusive. And, 300,000 visitors are expected to attend over the course of the three days, according to Ms. McHugh.