The High Court has appointed a provisional liquidator to a company which makes precision plastic moulded casings, including television cabinets, for the electronics industry, and employs 130 people at its Finglas factory premises.
A branch of the company also has a leased factory premises in the Czech Republic where it has three full-time employees and a locally contracted labour force of 140.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan was told yesterday that Mouldpro International Limited, with offices at Jamestown Road, Finglas, Dublin, is insolvent and unable to pay its debts.
Its largest debt is of €1.7 million to the Revenue Commissioners, due mainly to a VAT liability arising on the sale of the Dublin factory.
It also owes Total Petrochemicals (UK) Limited some €400,000 and €1.6 million is due to Bank of Ireland Commercial Financed Limited, the latter being the company's only secured creditor.
The petition for appointment of a provisional liquidator and for the winding up of the company was brought by Plastronix Investments Limited, a related company also with registered offices at Jamestown Road.
The judge appointed Mr Pearse Farrell of FGS Business Advisors as provisional liquidator and returned the petition to August 10th.
The holding company of Mouldpro is BDP Mouldings Limited, which has three other subsidiary companies, including Plastronix. Mouldpro is the principal trading company of the group.
Plastronix originally held the title of the Mouldpro factory in Dublin but this was later transferred to Mouldpro, leaving an inter-company balance of €1,012,000 owing to Plastronix.
Mouldpro's principal customers are leading international manufacturers of electronic equipment and it has had relationships with Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba for more than 18 years, the court heard.
It was stated the principal reasons for the losses suffered by the company in 2004 and 2005 were the diminishing level of production by the company's customers in the UK, reflecting a general trend in the manufacturing sector of migration to eastern Europe, and tighter margins.
The company had attempted to find new customers in the Irish market, to plan for an anticipated move to new style flat screen televisions and to restructure its costs base.
The company also sold its Dublin factory to two private investors for €11.75 million.
The proceeds of the sale enabled it to repay all of its second borrowings and to make up for losses incurred in 2004 and 2005.
However, the company had experienced serious setbacks when it was told in June last that Toshiba's projected requirement for €3.5 million of product was being cut back to €1.5 million while Sony announced it was closing its UK operations completely and that it would now require €2.5 million of product and not the €10 million it had confirmed earlier.
Because of these developments, the benefit of the sale and leaseback of the company's Dublin property was eliminated before other revenue streams could make up the lost ground, the judge was told.
On that basis, the company was insolvent.
