The company behind the National Ploughing Championship taking place this week in Co. Laois has €11 million cash on its balance sheet – which nobody owns!

The ‘Ploughing’ is organised by The National Ploughing Association of Ireland Company, a company limited by guarantee (CLG).

A CLG company is a company which does not have a share capital and the constitution of which provides that the liability of its members is limited to such amount as the members may undertake to contribute to the assets of the CLG in the event of it being wound up.

The distinguishing feature from a limited company is the absence of a share capital. Members of a CLG company are not shareholders and do not have an economic interest in the company’s capital.

National Ploughing Association of Ireland (NPAI) was incorporated in March 1956. The company has 30 current directors and 40 past directors, and is led by managing director Anna Marie McHugh, a director since 2007.

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The three-day Ploughing at Ratheniska is far and away Ireland’s largest trade show, and will be the most popular live event in Ireland this year after the Garth Brooks concerts when it concludes on Thursday 22 September.

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This year’s Ploughing is the first event in three years, having been cancelled due to Covid concerns in 2020 and 2021.

NPAI’s turnover in the year to January 2022 was €105,000, on par with €91,000 the previous year.

The accounts to January 2020, which took in the Ploughing 2019 event, recorded turnover of €5.6m and an operating loss of €430,000.

Even though there was no Ploughing event in 2021, the FY22 accounts disclose administrative expenses of €1.1m, up from €810,000 in FY21, another non-event year.

NPAI does not disclose how administrative expenses are broken down.

The filing for FY22 shows two directors and five other staff on the payroll, and no remuneration information is disclosed.

Staff and director costs were disclosed in the filing for FY20 when 13 people shared €492,000 pay and €99,000 in pension payments.

NPAI’s net worth in January 2022 was €11.7m, down from €13.0m two years earlier, pre-Covid.

The balance sheet at the start of 2022 included €1.5m in available cash and €9.6m in term deposits.  

Company officers made some effort to manage the cash pile last year by terminating €7.6m in term deposits and adding €7.56m in new term deposits.

Interest income in FY22 was only €21,000 but the accounts record a €390,000 profit on disposal of investments.

NPAI also received €75,000 in government grants last year and availed of €80,000 in wage subsidies in the financial year to January 2022.