Glen Dimplex acquires main distributors

Glen Dimplex has acquired the largest Irish distributors of its products for an undisclosed sum. The privately-owned group said yesterday it had decided to buy Dimpco and Brownbrook because "with consolidation in the European retail and wholesale industries, it is essential for the group to have direct trading relationships with our key customers".

Glen Dimplex - which is owned by businessmen Mr Martin Naughton and Mr Lochlann Quinn - is one of Ireland's most successful but secretive companies. It publishes no financial information and never discloses the price paid for acquisitions.

The limited information disclosed about Dimpco and Brownbrook is that they have a combined turnover of €65 million and employ 100 people in Cloghran, Co Dublin and Craigavon, Co Armagh.

Mr Sean O'Driscoll, the chief executive of Glen Dimplex, said: "Dimpco and Brownbrook have been the Glen Dimplex Group's long-term distributors in the South and North of Ireland. Both companies have been tremendously successful and we plan to further expand their product range as part of the Glen Dimplex Group."

The two firms are owned by Drogheda businessman Mr Brendan McDonald and are subsidiaries of McDonald Industries, which has other interests including investments of more than €12 million. That company made profits of just under €3 million in 2000 on its trading activities, the bulk of which were accounted for by distributing Glen Dimplex products.

Mr McDonald is better known as a property investor and also as one of the backers of Mr Larry Goodman when he bought his meat processing empire back from the banks in 1995.

Mr Goodman bought Mr McDonald and the other investors out of Irish Food Processors in 1999. The firm was valued at more than €150 million, suggesting Mr McDonald got about €14 million for his 9 per cent stake.

Glen Dimplex said yesterday it had a turnover of €1.3 billion and employed 8,500 people worldwide. Some 2,500 people work for the company in Ireland where it has factories in Dunleer, Co Louth, Tralee, Co Kerry, Newry and Bangor, in Co Down, and Portadown, Co Armagh.

It also manufactures electrical appliances in England, France and elsewhere in Europe where it is best known as the leading manufacturer of electric heaters. The major shareholder is the company founder Mr Naughton, who owns in the region of 74 per cent. He is currently a member of the Council of State and chairman of Intertrade Ireland, the cross-Border business development organisation. The other 26 per cent is owned by Mr Quinn, who is the chairman of AIB and brother of the Labour leader Ruairí.

The two men built the company up from a single factory through a relentless series of acquisitions to make it one of the world's largest electrical appliance manufacturers.

Glen Dimplex is a private unlimited company and, as a result, does not have to file accounts with the Companies Office in Dublin. It is, in turn, owned by an offshore company called Kilkee Investments Limited.