Cook Medical Ltd is a Limerick-based subsidiary of Cook Medical EMEA Group Ltd and during the year, numbers employed by Cook Medical at the National Technology Park increased from 615 to 661 as staff costs rose from €34.2m to €37.67m.

Cook Medical Ltd’s R&D spend also increased sharply from €17.29m to €24.09m.

The Limerick-based Cook Medical EMEA Group Ltd, which is a parent of all Cook entities in Europe, recorded a post-tax loss of €37.37m after incurring a tax charge of €80.9m.

The directors state that the post-tax loss for the year is principally related to the booking of a tax provision of €73.4m.

Tax liability

They state that a group company has provided for a tax liability arising from an assessment from the Danish tax authorities. The assessment relates to the tax years 2005 through 2008.

The directors state that the decision to provide for the assessment is due to decisions made in related test cases before the Danish Supreme Court in spring 2023.

The directors have paid an interim dividend amounting to €6m.

The principal business activity of the Cook Group in EMEA is the design, manufacture, and distribution of medical devices to customers and the holding of shares in European sales subsidiaries.

The group has two manufacturing plants in Europe, based in Ireland and Denmark, while its European master distribution centre is based in Germany.

The directors state that the group has a large customer base of hospitals and clinics in western Europe and exports to distributors in eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as well as supplying products to the North and South American and Asia Pacific markets.

Growth

They state that the group continues to focus its efforts on realigning its organisational structure to better support customers, continues to invest in and modernise certain aspects of operations, namely in the area of information technology systems and quality, and is satisfied that the realignment and investment undertaken will ensure it is well-positioned for growth.

On the firm’s future developments, the directors state that management expects pressure on healthcare budgets to continue in 2023 onwards but are confident that the group is well positioned to grow.

They state that the group has ambitious but achievable business goals, with both the Vascular and MedSurg divisions expected to achieve sales growth.

They add that increased sales growth combined with continued monitoring of costs should allow the group to trade profitably for the foreseeable future.

The pre-tax profits last year take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €7.3m.

At the end of last December, shareholder funds at Cook Medical EMEA Group totalled €476.43m.

Cash funds at Cook Medical EMEA Group last year increased from €116.93m to €129.12m.

Numbers employed across Cook Medical EMEA last year increased from 2,174 to 2,243 as staff costs rose from €183.37m to €189.82m.

Directors’ remuneration last year increased from €548,894 to €564,816.