Cooley Distillery chairman Mr John Teeling yesterday led a move which ousted his long-standing colleague, Mr Paul Power, from the company's board at its annual general meeting.
Shareholders at the meeting in Dublin's Berkeley Court Hotel voted Mr Power off the board by 2.345 million shares to 1.329 million. Mr Teeling was responsible for two million of the votes against Mr Power, who has been involved with Cooley since the late 1980s. The men were regarded as close colleagues. Mr Power was in Spain and did not attend the meeting.
Mr Power and fellow non-executive director Mr William McCarter were up for re-election to the Cooley board in what looked like a routine item on the agenda. But in a surprise move, Mr Teeling told the meeting that there would be a poll on the issue of Mr Power's re-appointment. He later told The Irish Times that he had only told his fellow directors of his intention to call for the poll 90 minutes before the meeting began at 12 noon.
He told the meeting that Mr Power wanted to sell the company - a move he and other board members opposed. He added that Cooley wanted to concentrate on winning extra sales for its whiskey brands by putting extra resources into marketing.
Mr Teeling also declared that he had two million in shares and proxies, which he would be using to vote against Mr Power's re-election.
In further evidence of conflict on the Cooley board, Mr Lee Mallaghan, another Teeling ally, told the meeting that he intended to support Mr Power.
From the results of the ballot, it was clear that both men accounted for the bulk of the votes on either side. Mr Mallaghan holds 1,037,699 shares in the company. Mr Teeling holds 1,044,199. It is understood that proxies from family and friends made up the rest of his two million share of the vote against Mr Power.
Afterwards, Mr Teeling said he had tried to persuade Mr Power not to stand for re-election, and stressed that the move against him was not personal. "It was an attempt to get the board working as a board, and focused on what it should be focused on," he said, adding that over the past year "too many board meetings" were dominated by the issue of selling the company.
In 2002, Cooley entered into talks with French player Angostura, which was interested in buying the company for €32.6 million, or €3.62 a share. However, the process ended without Angostura making an offer.
Mr Teeling founded Cooley in 1987, and sold shares to small stakeholders through a series of Business Expansion Schemes in 1988, 1989 and 1990. It has nine million shares in issue and 323 shareholders. All are individuals and the company does not have any institutions on its register. The board holds more than 38 per cent of the issued share capital.
Cooley distills whiskey at facilities in counties Louth and Westmeath, and products include the Kilbeggan, Tyrconnell and Connemara whiskey brands.These account for around 80,000 cases a-year, or 35 per cent of the company's volumes.
The company will today launch a 12-year-old whiskey, which it said would be a high-margin product.
