Queally brothers' firm hit by €1.9m in losses
Saturday July 31 2010
Arrow Group, one of the meat-processing firms owned by Waterford's Queally brothers, ploughed into the red last year with a €1.9m pre-tax loss as revenue fell 18pc to just under €340m. The company had made a €4.6m pre-tax profit in 2008.
In accounts just filed for the group at the Companies Office, directors note that the company has been hit by reduced consumer spending and the weakness of sterling during the period.
The firm received €6.4m from Enterprise Ireland last year from the state agency's new stabilisation fund -- established to assist manufacturing and export-orientated companies during the downturn. That cash injection represents 6.4pc of the total €100m used to create the Enterprise Ireland fund. Money received by firms is typically repayable after five years at a 3pc interest rate.
Activities
Controlled by Peter, John and Michael Queally, the Arrow Group's activities encompass pig processing, but also include a stake in a plastic bottle-manufacturing business, a water-distribution business in Barcelona and all-weather football pitches. It also has a 50pc stake in chocolate firm Lily O'Brien's and an interest via a joint venture in a Brazil-based meat operation.
During the year, Arrow also disposed of its equity interest in a South Africa-focused meat firm called Lason Investments 18, while the group had net debt of €134m at the end of last December.
The results do not include the Queallys' Dawn Meats group, which is unlimited.
Arrow employed nearly 1,700 people at the end of last December and paid €52.7m in wages and salaries. Directors' total remuneration was €201,000 compared to €199,000 in 2008.
- John Mulligan
Irish Independent
