{"id":1131164,"date":"2026-08-05T04:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1131164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T04:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:37:22","slug":"profits-among-northern-irelands-100-largest-companies-fall-by-more-than-17-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1131164\/","title":{"rendered":"Profits among Northern Ireland\u2019s 100 largest companies fall by more than 17% \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest businesses operating in Northern Ireland <\/a>have collectively seen their pretax profits fall by 17.5 per cent this year, culminating in a \u00a3315 million (\u20ac368 million) drop in earnings.<\/p>\n

Sales also dipped by \u00a33 million, only the second time this has happened since the Ulster Business Top 100 Northern Ireland Companies <\/a>list was first published 38 years ago.<\/p>\n

The report, released in association with Northern Ireland<\/a>-based tax firm Ryan, ranks the largest firms in the region based on their annual turnover recorded on annual company filings. <\/p>\n

It focused on \u201cthe performance of companies, either Northern Ireland registered or where a significant proportion of their business is transacted\u201d in the six counties. <\/p>\n

Pretax profit across the 100 largest firms came to \u00a31.48 billion, down from \u00a31.8 billion the previous year. Sales were \u00a334.969 billion, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Food producer Pilgrim\u2019s Europe, which was previously known as Moy Park and has brands such as Richmond, Rollover and Denny in its portfolio, ranked first in this year\u2019s list, with turnover of \u00a31.96 billion.<\/p>\n

New companies featuring on this year\u2019s list include the engineering firm Mallaghan, refurbishment provider MJM Marine and car retailer Shelbourne Motors. <\/p>\n

Editor of Ulster <\/a>Business magazine John Mulgrew said this year\u2019s results reflect \u201ca tightening of margins among some companies [in Northern Ireland]. While we can\u2019t compare the top-100 lists like-for-like each year, as the list fluctuates and new firms join the edition while others fall away, it may highlight the impact of macroeconomic factors and global headwinds on some bottom lines.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added that the report still reflects a wider, long-term positive story for Northern Ireland, with more than half of those [companies listed] seeing pretax profits rise.<\/p>\n

\"\"What size does your pension actually need to be for a comfortable retirement?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe headline numbers may look less positive than last year\u2019s,\u201d said Michael Heinicke, a principal partner at Ryan. \u201cBut the underlying story is one to be proud of. Businesses are sharper, more disciplined and better placed to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eugene O\u2019Neil, also a principal at Ryan, noted \u201c53 companies improved their pretax profit this year, including 12 that did so while their turnover fell. It\u2019s a sign of businesses getting leaner and more disciplined, not just profitable. It\u2019s a pattern we\u2019re seeing across our clients in Northern Ireland and one that\u2019s playing out across Ryan\u2019s wider client base too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s economic output has been growing steadily in recent years, with the economic policy centre of Ulster University expecting the North\u2019s economy to grow by 1.6 per cent this year, up from its 1.3 per cent forecast at the end of 2025. <\/p>\n

Northern Ireland has the smallest GDP in the United Kingdom, at \u00a363.3 billion in 2023, partially due to its small population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest businesses operating in Northern Ireland have collectively seen their pretax profits fall by 17.5 per cent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1131165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":["post-1131164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117041054751372053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}