Ireland’s largest tobacco company, Japan Tobacco International or JTI saw its pre-tax profits rise to €21m last year from €17m in 2013.
Turnover actually fell slightly to €652m reflecting a near 6% reduction in the overall cigarette market here
JTI controls the Benson & Hedges and Carrolls brands here and its brands make up over 50% of the Irish market.
It announced plans to close its last factory in Ballymena, Co Antrim in Northern Ireland with the loss of 800 jobs - it will move this production to Poland and Romania. The Northern Irish plant is due to be fully wound down by 2017.
This is the last cigarette manufacturing facility on the island of Ireland.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports that the privately-owned, Irish Distillers Group (IDG) paid a divided of €140m to its French parent company, Pernod Ricard, in June.
That’s an increase of nearly 80% on the €79m of the year before - its brands include Jameson, Paddy and Powers.
The payment was made through an Irish-registered company called Comrie Ltd - it owns 92.89% of IDG.
Comrie is resident in France, and has no employees - its latest accounts showed that it recoded a profit of €130.8m in the year to June. It received income of €131.7m from its subsidiaries, Irish Distillers Group and Irish Distillers Ltd.