Star DJ fights back with new sales job

The Kilkenny hurling legend saw his cleaning supplies business wound up last month when it went into liquidation.

Mr Carey and his partner, Sarah Newman, took the tough decision to put the firm into voluntary liquidation after it emerged that it had debts of €1.7m. Because of its liabilities, the company was unable to continue in business.

Creditors are understood to have included the Revenue Commissioners and Ulster Bank, while most trade creditors were owed relatively small amounts.

Mr Carey and Ms Newman -- a successful entrepreneur in her own right who has featured as an investor on the TV programme Dragons' Den -- are owed more than 50pc of debts run up by the business.

The crash followed revelations in February that unauthorised financial dealings at the Carey group of companies running to hundreds of thousands of euro were the subject of a garda investigation.

The transactions were unsuccessfully investigated by the company's own auditors. It is understood Mr Carey himself called in the gardai after he was made aware of the mystery transactions.

Yesterday it was confirmed that DJ Carey and eight of his staff had joined the Galway company which last month acquired his cleaning supplies business.

Western Hygiene Supplies, one of the country's leading distributors of hygiene products, has appointed him as sales manager for its expanded, nationwide operation.

Exciting

Managing director of Western Hygiene, Kevin Collins, said that the addition of DJ Carey and his team was an exciting development for the company, which was continuing to grow, despite the downturn.

The company, based in Cummer, Tuam, already had more than 11,000 customers across the country and this number has now been significantly increased.

Mr Collins said: "We are delighted to welcome him and his team on board -- it's a very positive step for our business."

hnews@herald.ie