The Irish arm of Tesco's data analysis company, dunnhumby paid a €7.8 million dividend to its parent last year, according to newly filed accounts for the business.
A report in the Irish Independent states that it was the first dividend paid by the Irish arm since 2015, when €3.4 million was paid to its parent.
dunnhumby works with Tesco and other retailers and manufacturers, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Nestlé, to drill down into customer behaviour and to ultimately boost sales. The firm handles Tesco's own Clubcard business. Dunnhumby analyses more than 395 million shopper baskets and nine billion data records every week for clients.
Accounts for the Irish unit show that its revenue fell by 4% to €9.7 million in the financial year to the end of last February, while its pre-tax profit declined to €1.1 million from €1.2 million.
The company noted that it provides 'customer data analytics and media services, primary to retailers and consumer goods manufacturers in Ireland'. It added that it uses its tools to better understand retail customers, improve their in-store and online experiences, and earn their loyalty to enable 'major grocery and department store retailers to grow like-for-like sales and net margins'.
"The performance of the business continues to reflect the uncertainty in the Irish economy and the consolidation by some CPG [consumer packaged goods] companies of their operations," the directors of Dunnhumby Ireland noted in the latest set of accounts.
Newly filed accounts for the UK-based dunnhumby parent firm show that it generated revenue of £372.2 million (€444 million) in the last financial year and a £29.9 million operating profit.
Of the Irish arm's turnover in the last financial year, €5.5 million was derived from 'insights and retailer turnover', while €4.1 million came from the sale of media-related services.
In 2015, Tesco pulled the plug on a planned sale of a majority stake in dunnhumby, which could have valued the business at up to £2 billion. Tesco acquired the business in 2004.
The proposed sale was part of an asset review by Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis, who was parachuted into the retailer in 2014 to revive the business. He also had to handle the fallout from an accounting scandal.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Maev Martin. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
