A building company that folded leaving sports clubs with bills for unfinished work owes creditors more than €2 million.
Grangecon, Wicklow-based Clearwater Construction & Landscaping Ltd, known to most customers as CWC, ceased trading earlier this month.
Creditors heard on Friday that the business has a deficit, the difference between liabilities and assets, of €2.37 million.
The firm, run by director PJ Norton, owes €2.06 million to unsecured creditors, mostly suppliers with unpaid bills or customers with unfinished work.
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They voted to appoint KPMG as joint liquidator with another firm instead of the company’s nominees, Eoin Massey and Anthony Glennon of Friel Stafford.
Clearwater owes Revenue €230,176, including €87,412 in PAYE and PRSI along with €64,239 in unpaid VAT and more than €33,000 in corporation tax.
An estimation of the realisable value of Clearwater’s assets comes €5,011, according to a statement of affairs given to shareholders on Friday that was seen by The Irish Times.
Sports organisations, many of them in the southeast, are owed significant sums for work that has yet to be completed.
Leaving the meeting, which ran for 90 minutes in a hotel in Stillorgan, Dublin, creditors said they did not expect to receive the sums they are due from Clearwater.
A spokesman for Kilmacthomas GAA Club in Co Waterford, said the organisation paid Clearwater a €50,000 deposit to secure an astroturf pitch in July after the company sought the payment.
“We had concerns about a making a payment at that level but we did our due diligence, we had our contracts in place and had our solicitor review them, but then the purchase was never made by Clearwater,” he said.
The spokesman pointed out that many of the organisations now left with unfinished work had paid Clearwater with money received through the Government’s Sports Capital Grants scheme, one the main funding sources for community groups across the Republic.
All of them also rely heavily on voluntary raising efforts by members and their committees, he added.
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Jamie Farrell, chairman of Bunclody Association Football Club in Co Wexford confirmed that the meeting heard that Clearwater began to experience difficulties in March and these had become more serious by July.
His organisation paid Clearwater €313,000 for work left incomplete as a result of the company’s failure.
He said he hoped that the liquidators “act on behalf of creditors and that they look into the company in great detail”.
The well-known Athboy Celtic Association Football Club in Co Meath is owed €135,800 according to a list of creditors.
Following news that the company ceased trading the week before last, several of the organisations hit complained that Clearwater had not been communicating with them.
Norton refused to comment following Friday’s meeting.
