NEW company accounts for Daniel O’Donnell reveal that the Kincasslagh man’s main firm has almost doubled its accumulated profits to €5m in the past three years.
Donegal’s most famous singer has enjoyed a long and lucrative career which has seen him sell more than 10 million records since he first made his name in the early 1990s with songs such as ‘I Just Want to Dance With You’.
But the new accounts show that the past three years have been particularly kind to Daniel, who celebrated his 50th birthday last year.
The recently filed returns by Mr O’Donnell’s main entertainment firm, DOD Promotions, show accumulated profits have increased by two thirds over the period as they climbed from €2.9m in 2009 to €4.98m by last October. His profits for 2011 amounted to €307,000, €459,538 in 2010 and €1.2m in 2009.
The firm’s cash pile, money that the singer can dip into at any time like savings, increased to €666,632 last year.
A major contributor to the wealth of DOD Promotions is Mr O’Donnell’s own touring company, Brockwell Ltd. The figures show that DOD Promotions received €429,277 from Brockwell last year and was due an additional €1m from Brockwell at year end.
The abridged accounts for DOD Promotions do not provide a profit and loss account that would include a turnover figure. However, they do disclose that the firm paid €127,369 in corporation tax last year.
The returns show that Daniel O’Donnell’s long-serving manager, Sean Reilly serves as a director on DOD Promotions. The singer proved his popularity earlier this month by selling out 10,000 tickets for five concerts in Killarney’s INEC in record time. He is also planning a summer tour for next year.
Talking about his career on his own website, Mr O’Donnell says that money is not a motivating factor for him in his career. “I’ve never sung to make money. When I’m performing I never think about how much I’m making on the night. I sing because I love it and the money is just a by-product of what I do,” he said.
“My biggest payment is being on the stage and that is a big part of the secret of my success. If it all ended tomorrow, I couldn’t say there is anything the world could have offered me that is better than what I have.”
Earlier this year, 1,000 people turned out, with some travelling from Canada and Scotland, to see their idol cut the ribbon to the new Daniel O’Donnell visitor centre in his home town of Dungloe.
The centre contains memorabilia from Daniel’s long career. In a recent post to fans on his official website, Daniel said that the centre had “surpassed all of our expectations with over 5,000 visitors through the centre already”.