The High Court has appointed a provisional liquidator to a furniture company that is insolvent mainly due to the downturn in the retail trade.
Furniture Depot Kilkenny Ltd has five outlets based at Carrickmines, Dublin; Tullamore, Co Offaly; Naas, Co Kildare; Kilkenny; and Waterford. The company has liabilities over assets of €2.2 million but that figure, in a winding up situation, would rise to almost €4 million, the court heard.
Gary McCarthy, for the directors of the company, said it was formed in 2003 and had rapidly expanded. It had suffered a modest loss of around €205,000 in 2008 but, despite radical costs restructuring, had a loss in its draft accounts for 2009 of more than €1.8 million.
The company was “another casualty of the downturn in the retail business,” counsel said. Efforts to secure refinancing through Bank of Scotland Ireland and the company’s biggest supplier had not proven fruitful.
If a provisional liquidator was appointed, he could continue to trade and ensure customers who had paid deposits on furniture could receive their orders, counsel said.
The liquidator could also examine the possibility of selling some of the outlets and provide security for those, Mr McCarthy added. It was hoped this would avoid a repeat of an incident last year when the company closed an outlet in Clonmel and the landlord seized €40,000 worth of stock, taking the keys to the building with him.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy appointed Mr David Van Dessel, of Kavanagh Fennell, as provisional liquidator.