Profits back on track at Queally-owned Arrow Group

After-tax profit at the Arrow Group increased to €20.3m in 2023 from €11m a year earlier, while turnover rose to €759m.

The Arrow Group is owned by the Queally family and is the holding company for a range of businesses including Dawn Farms, the supplier of ingredients to pizza and sandwich manufacturers and the snack food market.

Other well-known businesses that are part of the group include QK Cold Stores, QK Meats, Irish Dog Foods, Queally Pig Slaughtering, which trades as Dawn Pork and Bacon, and Dawn International, the meat trading company.

While the boost in profits last year is significant, it only brings the profit back to the level it was at in both 2020 and 2021 (Figure 1).

Looking at the details of the figures for this year, the cost of sales was slightly lower at €655m, putting the operating profit at €104m.

Distribution and administration costs were in line with the previous year, with interest payments the one cost for the year which saw a notable jump from €1.9m to €5m.

The company said in the report that it had reduced working capital needs during the year, which suggests the increase in interest cost was entirely driven by rising bank interest rates during 2023.

The Arrow Group is made up of almost 30 companies. The Group accounts are a consolidated report on the trading activities of those companies, meaning there is no clarity on how individual operations such as the pork or pet food business performed during the year.

Staff numbers at the group increased by 83 to 2,238 with the wage bill rising by more than €4m to €87.8m.

The majority of staff at the group are employed at Dawn Farms, the supplier to customers in the pizza, sandwich, snack and prepared meal sectors.

Dawn Farms describes itself as the largest supplier of pre-cooked meat, plant protein, fermented and dried sausage ingredients outside the US.

Another division of Arrow, the Irish Dog Food company, recently announced a deal to supply Aldi in the US with petfood products. The company paid dividends to shareholders – the Queally family – of €1.8m during the year. In 2022, there was no dividend paid.

Peter Queally, co-founder of Arrow Group and Dawn Meats, passed away in August of last year.

His daughter, Irene, was appointed to the board of the group in October 2023.