The group purchased and moved to a new site during the reported period, and there were significant costs incurred.

The directors also reported difficult trading conditions and said they were disappointed with the year.

These included volatile commodity input prices, retail resistance to price increases as well as rises in energy and labour costs. However, the directors did feel that they had the infrastructure for positive growth in the years ahead.

Olhausen's turnover dropped marginally from A 34.2m to A 33.8m, with no dividend being paid out, compared with A 476,152 for the previous 12 months. The company's operating profit runs at A 5,521,180 and it has A 8.8 million worth of land and buildings.

The company employs 224 people and paid A 5,696,711 in wages and salaries - a marginal increase on the year ending March 2005. The cost of moving the premises from Coolock to Blanchardstown industrial park, including associated redundancies, was totalled at A 472,068.

Olhausen was established in 1896 and grew out of a butcher shop at Talbot Street in Dublin which was frequented by Leopold Bloom, according to James Joyce's Ulysses.