Business

MJM Marine rows back on lost pandemic sales

Turnover at Newry fit-out firm rises to £48.5m - but still less than half where it was pre-Covid

Sales at MJM Marine grew 19.3 per cent to £116.6 million while the company cleared profits of £15.1 million
Pre-tax profit at cruise fit-out specialist group MJM jumped from £5.9m to £9.5m last year, its latest accounts reveal
By Gary McDonald

Family-owned Newry outfitting firm MJM Marine continues to row back some of the financial ground it lost during the Covid years.

Its latest accounts show that the company, a leading international specialist in the cruise ship refurbishment, refit and interior fit-out services, increased its revenues to £48.5 million in 2023 from £37.9 million the year before.

Pre-tax profit at MJM - which is also a global expert in the construction of high-end and complex projects for land markets - jumped from £5.9m to £9.5m, and on a bottom-line basis it retained more than £7.5m.

Employee numbers grew over the last year from 149 to 192, made up of 94 in management/administration, 42 in production and 56 on contracts.

But the company, founded by Brian McConville CBE and now run by his son and daughter Conleth and Naoimh along with chief executive Gary Annett and the recently-appointed Christopher Rodgers, has still some ground to make up until it gets back to its 2019 performance levels, when sales peaked at more than £116 million and it had 281 employees on the payroll.

New flexible office space for Belfast
Brian McConville and his wife Connie in front of Rathbane Group's One Donegall Square East building in Belfast, which opened in June as a 220-desk corporate co-working space after a £7m investment

MJM Marine was established in 1983 to provide refurbishment services to vessels on the Irish Sea ferry corridor, expanding its specialist joinery division into hotel and leisure industries in 1990 before investing £7m in 2009 to open a 100,000 sq ft purpose-built manufacturing facility in Newry.

In 2022 the company, which also now has an office in Poland, launched its own carpet and upholstery division and earlier this year launched a specialist nautical technical solutions (NTS) division.

MJM Marine is part of the Rathbane Group, which also comprises Mivan and Topglass, and much of the business is now based in a holdings company in the Isle of Man.

Indeed as recently as September 9 founder Brian McConville ceased to be a person with significant control, with that control passing to MJM (IoM) Holdings Ltd, registered on the tax haven island.

In 2015 Rathbane Group paid more than £2 million to buy the old Pearl Assurance House in the shadow of Belfast City Hall out of receivership, and in June it was revived as ' One Donegall Square East’, a 220-desk corporate co-working space following a £7m investment which McConville said would be his legacy.

MJM continues to have a strong order book in the global cruise ship sector, where it works with a range of clients including the world’s largest cruise companies like Royal Caribbean Group.

Elsewhere within the Rathbane Group, Antrim-based Mivan had a stellar trading year in 2023, overtaking MJM in sales terms when its turnover more than doubled from £21.5m to £58.1m and pre-tax profit soared to £5.6m from just £23,000 the year before. Its after-tax take was £4.7m, compared to a loss of £30,000 the year before.

But Topglass, although its sales rose last year from £3.97m to £4.37m, posted a bottom-line loss of almost £160,000. It has 34 staff on its books.