RIBWORLD, A processor of vacuum-packed cooked pork ribs based in Co Tipperary, has gone into receivership after it was unable to pay a bank covenant. The receiver appointed to the company, Liam Dowdall of accountancy firm Smith and Williamson Freaney, said he was confident of finding a buyer for the firm.
Bank of Scotland appointed Mr Dowdall as receiver to and manager of STGN Limited, which trades as Ribworld and has a plant in Clonmel, where it employs 65.
Mr Dowdall told staff he intended to sell the business as a going concern. It will continue to operate at full capacity, with all jobs remaining in place.
Ribworld is one of Europe’s largest producers of pre-cooked pork ribs, which it sells in Ireland and overseas, principally in Scandinavia. A spokesman for Mr Dowdall said the company had “a good customer base”, but that it had become overburdened by debt.
The receiver has “had some conversations” with potential buyers, the spokesman said.
Last month, a creditor of Ribworld called Sealed Air Ltd issued a petition for a winding up of the company. However, it is the firm’s inability to meet its bank debt that has pushed it into receivership.
Abridged accounts for STGN Limited filed at the companies office show that it swung from a pretax profit of about €133,000 in 2009 to a loss of almost €534,000 last year. The accounts show that as of the end of 2010 it had an overdraft of almost €2.5 million, with cash of €86,000. Additional debts of €3.4 million took the deficit in net funds to almost €5.8 million.
Mr Dowdall’s spokesman said there were no issues of outstanding payments to suppliers.
Recently, Ribworld has been led by Canadian Bernard Berry, who formed the business in 2003 with Danish food industry expert Bo Nielsen. Mr Nielsen served as managing director until June this year, at which point he resigned as a director and Clonmel-based Brendan Binchy joined the board.
The other two directors of the firm are the US investors Richard and David Vandam, who pumped money into the business in 2006.
Mr Nielsen said in January 2010 that the company’s turnover was about €9 million.
