Cumulative profits at the operator RIP.ie rise to EUR 1.42 million

Profits for the company that runs online obituary RIP.ie fell 37% last year to €130,615.

Accounts filed by Co Louth-based Gradam Communications Ltd show that profit after tax of €130,615 follows profit after tax of €208,492 in 2020 and profit of €220,225 for 2019.

The main reason for the decline in earnings last year was directors’ payments of €100,000 in directors’ pension contributions for 2021, followed by a zero payment under that heading in 2020.

Consistently strong profits over the last few years have resulted in the company’s cumulative profit increasing to €1.42m. The company’s liquid funds increased from €1.29 million to €1.36 million at the end of last year.

Last year the number of deaths across Ireland rose by 4 per cent.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that there were 33,055 deaths in Ireland in 2021 – an increase of 1,290 from 31,765 deaths in 2020.

Jay Coleman and his sister Dympna Coleman run the business. The Colemans founded RIP.ie in 2005 and today it has more than 250,000 visitors every day with more than 50 million page views per month. The number of employees remained at five last year.

The directors’ pension contributions of €100,000 resulted in the directors’ total remuneration more than doubling from €77,156 to €161,000, consisting of €61,000 in salary and €100,000 in pension contributions. The company has challenged a High Court action brought by a Galway businessman who claims a 20 per cent stake in the company.

A note to the financial statements states that the company is party to litigation the outcome of which is uncertain and therefore no outstanding impact can be estimated.

The note adds, “Notwithstanding, the directors are confident that the litigation will have a positive outcome.”

Such is RIP.ie’s dominance of online obituaries here that the CSO has used statistics from the site as the primary tool for releasing more timely mortality statistics during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a report, the CSO found a strong correlation between the notices, which are generally released within three days or the likefa death and official statistics.