A RESCUE plan has been approved for Fallon & Byrne, the Dublin-based restaurant and gourmet food supplies business that went into examinership late last year.
The plan for the business, which employs 160 people, was approved by the High Court yesterday.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he was satisfied to approve the survival proposals advanced by the court-appointed examiner to the company, which operates at Exchequer Street.
The ruling allows the company to exit from examinership and continue to trade as a going concern.
Neil Hughes, of Hughes Blake Chartered Accountants, was appointed last January as examiner to the company after it sought protection from its creditors in circumstances where it was insolvent and unable to pay a €1.4 million tax bill.
Mr Hughes was appointed after a report by an independent accountant expressed the view the business could survive if certain conditions were met, including securing new investment.
Yesterday, Rossa Fanning, for Mr Hughes, said all the conditions set out in the independent accountant’s report had been satisfied. All but one of the firm’s 122 creditors had approved the scheme, he added.
New investment of more than €1 million had also been secured for the company and this would result in changes to its corporate governance, he said. The company’s shares are to be acquired by an entity called Sarzala Ltd.
Fiona McHugh and Paul Byrne, directors of Fallon and Byrne, will hold 45 per cent of the shares in Sarzala and will run the business on a day-to-day basis.
Two respected and experienced businessmen, Frank Murphy and Cormac Tobin, are also to be appointed to the company’s board, counsel added.