Chef Richard Corrigan doubles restaurant revenues but reports loss for 2022

Chef Richard Corrigan saw revenues across his hospitality businesses jump to to £15.7 million (€18.5 million) last year, with turnover in the Republic more than doubling. But the cost of opening new restaurants like The Park Café in Dublin and general pressure on costs meant the group made an overall loss.

Richard Corrigan Restaurants (Holdings) Limited – the main holding company for the group owned by the Irish chef that includes the Virginia Park Lodge estate in Cavan, the Park Café in Ballsbridge in Dublin, and a number of London restaurants – reported an operating loss of £163,488 (€189,160) for 2022, reversing a post-Covid return to profit in 2021 of £149,571 (€173,058).

Consolidated group accounts for 2022 show turnover reached £15.74 million, exceeding pre-pandemic levels of more than £11 million, and a jump from the £9.03 million in turnover reported by the group in 2021.

Operations in the Republic of Ireland contributed £4.93 million (€5.70 million) to overall revenues, more than double the £2.19 million (€2.53 million) reported for 2021.

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However, a strategic report attached to the accounts said converting those revenues “became a much harder task”, citing material cost pressures across all parts of the business, and pre-opening costs of new restaurants which impacted profits for the year.

Total cost of sales for the group jumped from £4.58 million in 2021, to £7.93 million last year.

Pre-opening costs included those for The Park Café in Ballsbridge, which opened in November 2022 in the former home of Dylan McGrath’s Shelbourne Social.

Despite cost challenges, the accounts say, “the group traded well when it could” and strong trading of “prime assets” helped to mitigate wide-ranging challenges that the entire hospitality sector continues to face.

However, it added that 2002 revenues were “very much a one-off” and it does not expect to see the levels seen in 2022 again “for the time being”.

The group noted that cost inflation continues to be a principal risk across the business, and that 2023 continues to be impacted by ongoing strikes which “have an enormous impact” on London trading.