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THE HIGH COURT has appointed joint provisional liquidators to the Irish arm of the fashion retailer Laura Ashley, which operates five stores in Ireland.
Laura Ashley Ireland Ltd, which is part of the Laura Ashley group and employs 76 people in Ireland, sought the winding up order arising out of its UK parent’s decision to enter administration in that jurisdiction.
The group, which sustained loses in recent years, entered administration after the outbreak of Covid-19 ended its attempts to raise third-party investment that it said it required in order to continue to trade.
At the High Court this afternoon, Mr Justice Michael Quinn said he was satisfied to appoint experienced insolvency practioners Ken Tyrell and Declan McDonald of PWC as the company’s joint provisional liquidators.
The evidence before the court was that the company was insolvent.
Seeking their appointment Rossa Fanning SC for the Irish firm told the court that the UK parent had informed his client that because of the administration it would no longer be able to provide the Irish company with any further financial support.
Without that support the Irish company, which had seen a decline in revenue in recent years, could not survive as it has a balance sheet deficit of over €563,000.
Counsel said that in addition to the parent group’s situation, the Irish firm had also been experiencing financial difficulties in recent years.
However the Covid-19 outbreak has had on catastrophic impact on its financial position.
In line with all other retailers the five Irish stores closed some weeks ago.
Prior to closing their doors that there had been a dramatic reduction in customer volumes and sales when people stopped going to shops, he added.
Counsel said the Irish company has liabilities of €3.3m, 80% of which was owed to other companies within the group. Other creditors include Revenue, trade creditors and landlords.
The appointment of provisional liquidators would help ensure an orderly winding up, and was in the best interests of the all the parties concerned.
Counsel also said that the parent firm’s administrators had been in talks with a party interested in acquiring some of the group’s Irish and UK assets.
A successful sale, counsel added, could potentially result in some or all of the Irish jobs and the business being saved.
It was also envisaged that the provisional liquidators will work with the administrators of the UK parent as part of the asset sale process, counsel said.
The parent company, which had made loses in recent years, went into administration last month after it failed to secure fresh investment that would have allowed it continue to finance its operations.
The emergence of Covid-19 resulted in a sudden deterioration in the global economic outlook and for fashion in particular, counsel said.
The virus meant that the group was unable to raise the funding it required to allow it continue to trade, resulting in the appointment of administrations and the closure of a large number of its stores in the UK.
The judge, after confirming the provisional liquidator’s appointment, adjourned the matter to a date in early May.
“The average starting salary expected by an Irish graduate in 2015 is €40,405.”
Speaking from an IT perspective the average graduate will in reality earn closer to €30k (generally less) in my opinion. 40k seems mental as a starting salary.
More like 20K
Are you in IT Ian, if so what do you do and do you like your job? I’m thinking of up-skilling into that sector.
25k when I got a graduate job 2 years ago, 30k now… 40k would be the equivalent of €2,543 a month according to the PWC tax calculator
How does your brain work @Chris? Do you enjoy solving problems, designing things, fixing things?
Their is a very wide spectrum of IT careers.
If you’re into the sciencing, machine learning and data science have a huge future.
Hey Chris, whats your background? If you’re coming in without any background or certs, I’d recommend doing the CompTIA A+, Network+, Storage+ and Security+ as fundamental starting blocks. By then you should have an understanding on where you want to branch into. Give me a shout if you want to talk more.
I’m glad somebody else said this – have no clue where they picked 40K out of.
Expected starting salary €45k?! Did they all miss out on their ‘reality’ classes?!?!
40K???!! I’ve been job hunting with the last 2 months (ended three weeks ago thank Christ) and the best wage I was promised was in the low 30K range. The majority were in the 22,500 – 25,000 range and that’s even with a respectable science degree.
Sounds like a lot of these graduates are going to be disappointed. I started in one of these ‘top 10′ companies in 2010 on a salary of €21,500. Can’t imagine it’s changed much in the mean time. I am of the belief that, if you’re an ambitious graduate, your 20′s should be spent trying to discover what you enjoy as a career, something that’s hard to achieve in a profit hungry multinational. All they care about is squeezing you dry. If any soon to be graduates are reading this article I’d recommend reading this article.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140727232741-15381-don-t-waste-your-20s-at-google-or-mckinsey
Wants 45k ,it’s another thing in getting it…work your socks off then you might have a chance in getting your 45k
45k when I graduate??? Ha I was expecting 188 per week plus a extra 50 euro.
40k? havin’ a giraffe they are. 25k, maybe.
I know people who came out of college fresh from their degree and got into programs with PWC, Ernest & Young etc and they had €40k plus starting off. Its all about being in the top % of your class and leveraging your ability to sell yourself.
They must have been pulling your tail Jack. Myself and a lot of my accounting year went into Big 4 companies and you don’t get anything near that. As I’ve said above I started on €21.5k in 2010. Even when you get your exams, a recently qualified chartered accountant will only earn €40-45k in Dublin.
” fresh from their degree and got into programs with PWC”
I know experienced people who work in PWC and don’t get 40k. They’re one of the worst paying companies in the Irish financial services sector.
I work in Reward / Comp & Ben and have access to large amounts of this type of data….
25k is a good starting salary
The best paying graduate programme is with BOI and it pays about 27 / 28k depending on speciality
these students are mental, plain and simple
Jack my daughter went into Ernst & Young as a graduate three years ago, the salary was nowhere near that, think it was @€25K and 12 hour days were the absolute norm, no overtime paid. I think your friends were taking the mick. My daughter is back in college!
40k are they crazy……
There in for a rude awakening unfortunately.
pffft… work life balance. Lazy feckers.
Would just be nice to get a job at all, about to finish a advertising degree and anything would do.
Get out of advertising, for a start. Its a closed loop, very connection orientated, and thers NOT a lot of opportunity. I’d recommend once you finish to do a masters in a different topic.
I’m graduating this summer and starting salarys in banking and funds are nowhere near that. 22-25k far more realistic
They’re gas at that age!
I realise im reading this about a year later – but this killed me loll
Who are paying those salaries… ?? I’m obviously being way underpaid
No graduate will get that Trisha, they haven’t a clue! TBH most will be lucky to get a job in their chosen field. Your not being underpaid!
I was very lucky to get a job in my sector right as I finished my studies, other students I’m friends with were not so lucky. I had no “expectations” of a starting salary, just to get the foot in the door and make it from there.
Typical students expect big starting salaries like that straight out of collage – I’ve worked in IT for 15 years I can tell u starting salaries for grads is nowhere near that as it right it should be – I don’t thunj they understand the level of training that needs to he done once they start a new job your degree just gets u in the door!
I started in IT almost 6 years ago and that was on 25k. There is no way a grad is starting on 45k. If you’re good then you can definitely be on that within 3/4 years.
Yeah I’d imagine they want to work in Disney with all these fairytales they’re still believing. Was yohr average 2.1 BA in Business or Accounting or the like getting this even during the boom years….
You can see some of the salaries for these companies at glass door.com
That is not a realistic starting salary. Graduate salaries are 24k for sales and marketing roles. They are higher for professional services and engineering/ developer roles. But you would expect to earn 40k after working for 3-4 years.
Silly survey. Good click bait though.
” The average 21-year-old male Irish student expects to make €45,000 as a starting salary,
while female students have slightly more modest expectations of €37,000 when they begin their career. ”
Jesus, I’m in the wrong company.
In United States, CS graduates get above 100K in companies like Microsoft, Google etc. Salary is pretty low in Ireland while the quality of graduates might be similar or may be better for TCD, UCD CS graduates.
I started 4 years ago in IT with no experience or qualification on 18K. Was more than happy with that given my situation at the time – worked my ass off and am now on 35K, looking at 45K with a current job offer I’ve received. I’m 24. No excuse once you’re in the door not to work your ass off and become worth the money and to be vocal about it – but there is no way in hell you can expect to walk out of college to a 40K job lol
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