Pre-tax profits at Amazon’s Irish division doubles

PRE-tax profits at online giant Amazon’s main Irish arm last year more than doubled to €67.2m.

New accounts show that Amazon Data Services Ireland Ltd (ADSIL) recorded the jump in pre-tax profits as revenues increased more than €1 billion or 42 per cent from €2.39 billion to €3.40 billion.

Pre-tax profits increased by 135 per cent or €38.7m from €28.5m to €67.2m.

The main activity of the company is the operation of data centres and at the end of last year employed 1,432 people.

Amazon has five data centres in Tallaght, a logistics facility in Rathcoole, and a 630,000 square foot warehouse at Baldonnel.

An Amazon commissioned report has estimated that Amazon Web Services (AWS) has made a capital spend of €2 billion on its network of data centres here over the past decade.

The directors for ADSIL state that during the year, administrative expenses increased in line with expectations due to an increase in data centre operational expenses, partially offset by reduced headcount costs owing to the 2020 research and development activity transfer to another group undertaking.

ADSIL ceased Research and Development activity on October 1, 2020, as this was transferred to a connected firm.

The company last year recorded a post tax profit of €51.48m after paying corporation tax of €15.7m.

The profit at ADSIL last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.082 billion. The average number of people employed by the business last year declined from 1,747 to 1,313.