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Business Performance in Ireland

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The performance of business in Ireland in 2016 was examined using a number of performance indicators. The structural business surveys 1 were used to compile the data.

Labour productivity, personnel costs as a percentage of Gross Value Added (GVA) and enterprise profitability were analysed. The contribution of the 50 largest enterprises, both in terms of GVA and employment were also examined. 

GVA represents the value of the goods and services produced, in this case, in the Irish business economy. A simple measure of productivity is to analyse GVA by the number of persons engaged. The relatively large multinational sector in Ireland and the consequent assignment of value added to the Irish economy, can make the interpretation of indicators like GVA per person more difficult. 

Care should be taken when looking at the results for Micro sized enterprises. This size class covers enterprises with less than 10 persons engaged. This also includes enterprises that officially have no persons engaged assigned to them, but in some cases have significant economic value.  In Figure 4.3 we can see that personnel costs relative to GVA are lower for Micro enterprises than for other SMEs. 

(1) The surveys used were Census of Industrial Production (CIP), Building and Construction Inquiry (BCI) and Annual Services Inquiry (ASI). Financial and Insurance activities were excluded from this analysis.

Irish-ownedAll enterprises
Micro <107798584324
Small 10-495359669415
Medium 50-2495673370970
Large 250+80553270188
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All size classes67771131105
  • Gross Value Added per person engaged averaged €131,105 for all enterprises in the Irish non-financial business economy in 2016, while Irish-owned enterprises averaged €67,771
  • Small enterprises reported GVA per person in 2016 of €69,415, while Medium enterprises reported GVA per person of €70,970 
  • GVA per person for Large Irish-owned enterprises was just over €80,500 but rose to €270,188 when foreign-owned Large enterprises were included
SMEs (<250)Large (250+)
All sectors75850270188
Industry113343686949
Construction5512397622
Distribution6565053969
Services76610140905
  • Gross Value Added per person engaged averaged €270,188 for Large enterprises and €75,850 for SMEs in the Irish non-financial business economy during 2016
  • In comparison to other sectors, Large Industrial enterprises reported the highest average GVA per person engaged, at €686,949  
  • Industrial SMEs also reported the highest GVA per person engaged in their size class, at €113,343
  • In Construction, average GVA per person engaged in Large firms was €97,622 and for SMEs €55,123
  • GVA per person engaged was greater in Large enterprises in all sectors other than the Distribution sector, where SMEs averaged €65,650 compared to €53,969 for Large enterprises in 2016
  • In the Services sector, average GVA per person engaged by large firms reached €140,905 compared to €76,610 for SMEs in 2016 
Irish-ownedAll enterprises
Micro (<10)39.436.6
Small (10-49)73.358.3
Medium (50-249)69.160
Large (250+)57.318.3
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All size classes55.231
  • In 2016, personnel costs represented 31.0% of GVA across all enterprises. For Irish-owned enterprises the figure was 55.2%
  • Personnel costs as a proportion of GVA for Large Irish-owned enterprises was 57.3%
  • When large foreign enterprises were included the value of personnel costs for all large enterprises fell to 18.3%
SMEs (<250)Large (250+)
All sectors4918.3
Industry38.29.1
Construction 66.453.9
Distribution55.862.4
Services47.235.6
  • In all sectors except Distribution, it was shown that personnel costs as a percentage of GVA was lower in Large enterprises than in SMEs in 2016
  • Large Industrial enterprises paid 9.1% of GVA in personnel costs compared to 38.2% for Industrial SMEs
  • Services enterprises that employed more than 250 people incurred personnel costs equivalent to over a third of GVA compared to almost half of all GVA for SMEs in 2016
Irish -ownedAll enterprises
Micro (<10)19.819.9
Small (10-49)5.58.1
Medium (50-249)7.28.7
Large (250+)10.828.2
nullnull
All size classes11.720.2
  • For all enterprises in the Irish non-financial business economy, 20.2% of Turnover was reported as Gross Operating Surplus
  • Irish-owned enterprises reported 11.7% of Turnover as Gross Operating Surplus
  • The highest rate of Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover was reported by all Large enterprises combined (28.2%)
SMEs (<250)Large (250+)
All sectors12.328.2
Industry20.538.2
Construction12.115
Distribution4.96.8
Services19.716.8
  • Large enterprises generated a Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover of 28.2% in 2016 compared to SMEs which generated 12.3%
  • The Distribution sector generated the least Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover, with Large enterprises at 6.8% and SMEs at 4.9% in 2016
  • The Industry sector generated the most Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover in 2016, with Large enterprises at 38.2% and SMEs at 20.5%
Top 50 by employmentTop 50 by GVA
Gross operating surplus41.769.2
GVA3351.1
Turnover23.535.2
  • Industry stands out in terms of its reliance upon a small number of high value added enterprises. The 50 largest enterprises in Industry by GVA accounted for 70.1% of total Turnover, 84.7% of total GVA and 93.1% of Gross Operating Surplus for the sector. See Table 4.1
  • The 50 largest enterprises in the business economy by GVA accounted for 35.2% of total Turnover, 51.1% of total GVA and 69.2% of Gross Operating Surplus. These Top 50 enterprises only accounted for 6.9% of all persons engaged
  • The 50 largest enterprises in the business economy by employment accounted for 23.5% of total Turnover, 33.0% of total GVA and 41.7% of Gross Operating Surplus
4.1 Contribution of 50 largest enterprises by GVA and employment within sector, 2016

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