Builder Clearwater Construction owes creditors €2.4m

Sports clubs left with bills for unfinished work

Creditors heard on Friday that Clearwater has a deficit , the difference between liabilities and assets, of €2.37 million.
Creditors heard on Friday that Clearwater has a deficit , the difference between liabilities and assets, of €2.37 million.

A building company that folded leaving sports clubs with bills for unfinished work owes creditors more than €2 million.

Grangecon, Wicklow-based Clearwater Construction & Landscaping Ltd, known to most customers as CWC, ceased trading earlier this month.

Creditors heard on Friday that the business has a deficit, the difference between liabilities and assets, of €2.37 million.

The firm, run by director PJ Norton, owes €2.06 million to unsecured creditors, mostly suppliers with unpaid bills or customers with unfinished work.

They voted to appoint KPMG as joint liquidator with another firm instead of the company’s nominees, Eoin Massey and Anthony Glennon of Friel Stafford.

Clearwater owes Revenue €230,176. Sports organisations, many of them in the southeast, are owed significant sums for work that has yet to be completed.

[ Building company ceases trading, leaving sports clubs with bills for unfinished workOpens in new window ]

Leaving the meeting, which ran for 90 minutes in a hotel in Stillorgan, Dublin, creditors said they did not expect to receive the sums they are due from Clearwater.

A spokesman for Kilmacthomas GAA Club in Co Waterford, said the organisation paid Clearwater a €50,000 deposit towards an astroturf pitch in July.

He pointed out that many of the organisations now left with unfinished work had paid Clearwater with money received through the Government’s Sports Capital Grants scheme.

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Jamie Farrell, chairman of Bunclody Association Football Club in Co Wexford noted that the meeting heard that Clearwater’s began to experience difficulties in March and these had become more serious by July.

His organisation paid Clearwater €313,000 for work left incomplete as a result of the company’s failure.

He said he hoped that the liquidators “act on behalf of creditors and that the look into the company in great detail”.

Norton refused to comment following Friday’s meeting.

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Barry O'Halloran

Barry O'Halloran

Barry O’Halloran covers energy, construction, insolvency, and gaming and betting, among other areas