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Business in Ireland 2018

Business Performance in Ireland

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The performance of business in Ireland in 2018 was examined using a number of performance indicators. The Structural Business surveys¹ 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 engaged 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.

¹The 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.

X-axis label	Irish-owned	All enterprises
Micro (<10 persons engaged)	76807	93349
Small (10-49 persons engaged)	48633	59126
Medium (50-249 persons engaged)	54912	78099
Large (250+ persons engaged)	90854	313878
All size classes	67045	147504

Gross Value Added (GVA) per person engaged averaged €147,504 for all enterprises in the Irish non-financial Business Economy in 2018, while Irish-owned enterprises averaged €67,045
In 2018, Small enterprises (10-49 persons engaged) reported GVA per person engaged of €59,126, while Medium enterprises (50-249 persons engaged) reported €78,099 GVA per person engaged
GVA per person engaged for Large (250+ persons engaged) Irish-owned enterprises was €90,854 but rose to €313,878 when foreign-owned Large enterprises were included

X-axis label	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)
All sectors	77950	313878
Industry	95569	778812
Construction	70455	117176
Distribution	68617	47612
Services	80070	198197

In 2018, Gross Value Added (GVA) per person engaged averaged €313,878 for Large enterprises and €77,950 for SMEs (<250 persons engaged) in the Irish non-financial Business Economy during 2018
In comparison to other sectors, Industrial enterprises reported the highest average GVA per person engaged for both Large enterprises and SMEs at €778,812 and €95,569 respectively
In the Construction sector, the average GVA per person engaged in Large firms was €117,176 while in SMEs it was €70,455
GVA per person engaged was greater in Large enterprises in all sectors other than the Distribution sector, where SMEs averaged €68,617 compared to €47,612 for Large enterprises
In the Services sector, the average GVA per person engaged by Large firms was €198,197 compared to €80,070 for SMEs in 2018

* Please note that above figures may differ slightly to values calculated when using Table 4.2 data where GVA was rounded to the nearest €million.

X-axis label	Irish-owned	All enterprises
Micro (<10 persons engaged)	32.4	27
Small (10-49 persons engaged)	74.7	64.5
Medium (50-249 persons engaged)	69.5	55.3
Large (250+ persons engaged)	54.3	16.5
All size classes	51.5	26.8

In 2018, personnel costs represented 26.8% of Gross Value Added (GVA) across all enterprises. For Irish-owned enterprises this figure was 51.5%
Personnel costs as a proportion of GVA for Large Irish-owned enterprises was 54.3%
When Large foreign enterprises were included the value of personnel costs for all Large enterprises fell to 16.5%

X-axis label	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)
All sectors	44.2	16.5
Industry	47.2	8.3
Construction	62	51
Distribution	47	74.5
Services	38.7	26.4

In 2018, all sectors other than the Distribution sector, had lower personnel costs as a percentage of Gross Value Added (GVA) in Large enterprises compared to SMEs
In the Industry sector, Large enterprises paid 8.3% of GVA in personnel costs compared to 47.2% in SMEs
Large Services enterprises incurred personnel costs of 26.4% of GVA compared to 38.7% for SMEs in 2018

X-axis label	Irish-owned	All enterprises
Micro (<10 persons engaged)	24.5	23.2
Small (10-49 persons engaged)	6.5	7.3
Medium (50-249 persons engaged)	8	10.1
Large (250+ persons engaged)	14.3	30.7
All size classes	14.9	23.1

For all enterprises in the Irish non-financial Business Economy, 23.1% of Turnover was reported as Gross Operating Surplus
Irish-owned enterprises reported 14.9% of Turnover as Gross Operating Surplus in 2018
The highest rate of Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover was reported by all Large enterprises combined (30.7%)

X-axis label	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)	Large (250+ persons engaged)
All sectors	14.2	30.7
Industry	13.8	39.3
Construction	14	16.9
Distribution	6.4	4.4
Services	24.9	23.2

SMEs generated a Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover of 14.2% in 2018
The Distribution sector generated the lowest Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover, with Large enterprises at 4.4% and SMEs at 6.4% in 2018
The Industry sector generated the highest Gross Operating Surplus as a percentage of Turnover in 2018, with Large enterprises at 39.3%

X-axis label	Top 50 by GVA	Top 50 by employment
Gross operating surplus	72.8	39.8
GVA	55.9	32.9
Turnover	43.3	27.1

The 50 largest enterprises in the Business Economy by GVA accounted for 43.3% of total Turnover, 55.9% of total GVA and 72.8% of Gross Operating Surplus. These Top 50 enterprises accounted for only 5.3% of all persons engaged
The 50 largest enterprises in the Business Economy by employment accounted for 27.1% of total Turnover, 32.9% of total GVA and 39.8% of Gross Operating Surplus
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 78.9% of total Turnover, 87.8% of total GVA and 96.2% of Gross Operating Surplus for the sector. See Table 4.1

4.1 Contribution of 50 largest enterprises by GVA and employment within sector, 2018

4.2 Gross value added per person engaged by sector and size class, 2018

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Table 4.1 Contribution of 50 largest enterprises by GVA and employment within sector, 2018
					€m
	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services¹	Total Business Economy ¹
Business Economy
Turnover	268,289	29,153	182,394	254,492	734,328
Gross value added	107,205	10,677	23,465	90,718	232,065
Gross operating surplus	93,489	4,191	11,035	61,095	169,810
Persons engaged	250,635	144,521	374,968	803,147	1,573,271
Contribution of Top 50 Enterprises by GVA
Turnover	78.9%	21.3%	31.4%	52.8%	43.3%
Gross value added	87.8%	22.2%	35.2%	49.4%	55.9%
Gross operating surplus	96.2%	38.0%	52.5%	65.3%	72.8%
Persons engaged	20.7%	8.1%	16.3%	9.1%	5.3%
Contribution of Top 50 Enterprises by employment
Turnover	65.8%	16.9%	11.9%	31.0%	27.1%
Gross value added	75.2%	15.2%	17.7%	13.5%	32.9%
Gross operating surplus	81.1%	16.5%	10.2%	10.2%	39.8%
Persons engaged	27.7%	10.5%	23.3%	13.8%	10.6%
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services NACE divisions R92, R93, S95, S96.

Table 4.2 Gross value added per person engaged by sector and size class, 2018
Sector and Class Size	Gross value added¹	Persons engaged	Gross value added per person engaged
	€'000	No.	€
Industry
Micro (<10)	2,856,253	28,500	100,219
Small (10-49)	2,810,853	38,272	73,444
Medium (50-249)	6,640,882	62,015	107,085
All SMEs (<250)	12,307,988	128,787	95,569
Large (250+)	94,896,662	121,848	778,812
All sizes	107,204,650	250,635	427,732
Construction
Micro (<10)	5,795,965	85,502	67,787
Small (10-49)	2,463,672	33,247	74,102
Medium (50-249)	1,176,540	15,183	77,491
All SMEs (<250)	9,436,177	133,932	70,455
Large (250+)	1,240,772	10,589	117,176
All sizes	10,676,949	144,521	73,878
Distribution
Micro (<10)	5,358,789	90,615	59,138
Small (10-49)	6,591,835	108,063	61,000
Medium (50-249)	6,381,098	68,482	93,179
All SMEs (<250)	18,331,721	267,160	68,617
Large (250+)	5,132,998	107,808	47,612
All sizes	23,464,720	374,968	62,578
Services²
Micro (<10)	26,907,722	233,723	115,127
Small (10-49)	9,479,304	181,436	52,246
Medium (50-249)	10,019,633	164,417	60,940
All SMEs (<250)	46,406,660	579,576	80,070
Large (250+)	44,311,137	223,571	198,197
All sizes	90,717,796	803,147	112,953
Total Business Economy
Micro (<10)	40,918,729	438,340	93,349
Small (10-49)	21,345,664	361,018	59,126
Medium (50-249)	24,218,153	310,097	78,099
All SMEs (<250)	86,482,546	1,109,455	77,950
Large (250+)	145,581,569	463,816	313,878
All sizes	232,064,115	1,573,271	147,504
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹Totals may differ due to rounding.
² Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services NACE divisions R92, R93, S95, S96.

Business in Ireland 2018

Business Performance in Ireland

Business Performance in Ireland

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