Losses reduced significantly at IMI ahead of sale to O'Coineen's Kilcullen Business Post Group
The 2024 accounts show turnover was down slightly, to €11.2m, but costs fell including the wage bill which was reduced from €5.75m in 2023 to €4.66m last year. The number of staff was cut to 63 from 77 over the period. IMI had launched a redundancy scheme in 2023 in an effort to cut costs.
The accounts are for the period before the sale was finalised and do not provide an update on the value of the transaction.
Earlier this year, UCC, which bought IMI for €20m nine years ago, agreed to sell the business to the expanding Kilcullen Business Post Group portfolio of companies.
The institute was originally member owned, having been established in 1952 by business leaders to develop training programmes and leadership training for industry. The 2016 deal with UCC was described at the time as being aimed at securing the Dublin institute's future as well as bolstering its engagement with industry,.
Since then, however, UCC has focused on expanding its Cork city-based business campus while IMI has suffered significant disruptions as a result of Covid, which hit on-campus courses hard, and industry trends towards online learning.
The IMI has 280 corporate members and provides a range of master's, diploma and short courses as well as providing conference facilities.
The 2024 accounts show the annual deficit fell but point to net losses at year end of €2.6m, The accounts, filed with the Companies Office, show provision of training courses generated the bulk of turnover, at €8.85m, followed by member subscriptions (€966,000), with smaller but significant contributions from on-campus accommodation and venue hire.
IMI's 13-acre suburban campus is in a largely residential part of Sandyford, in south Dublin, close to the M50 and Dundrum Town Centre, and could potentially be developed for housing, alongside the buildings used by the Institute.
UCC retained ownership of the campus after the sale of IMI but confirmed that a new lease agreement has been put in place with the Institute, 'ensuring its continued presence on-site and providing a stable platform for its future development'.
The institute is chaired by Dr Pamela Byrne, CEO of the Food Safety Authority, and headed since 2023 by CEO Shane O'Sullivan, a career banker and experienced executive who was most recently a senior executive at Permanent TSB.
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