Origins of Ardagh Glass

THE ORIGINS of Ardagh Glass lie in the Irish Glass Bottle Company, which for decades operated from a site in Ringsend that has recently become the centre of a controversial transaction involving the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Production at Irish Glass Bottle ceased in 2002, with the loss of 375 jobs. By then the company was a subsidiary of Ardagh plc, which said manufacturing in the State had become uneconomic.

In 2003, Ardagh plc was split in two, with Ardagh Glass Ltd keeping the manufacturing business and Ardagh plc changing its name to South Wharf plc – the main asset of which was the Ringsend site.

Ardagh Glass Ltd spent the years following the hiving off of South Wharf on the acquisition trail.

Revenues grew from just €45 million in 1998 to sales of €1.2 billion before the Impress deal. Meanwhile, in 2006, South Wharf sold the site for €412 million to Becbay, a consortium that included the DDDA and developers Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan.

Becbay borrowed almost €290 million from Anglo Irish Bank, whose then chairman, Seán FitzPatrick, was on the DDDA’s board. These loans have been moved to the National Asset Management Agency.

The deal has been disastrous for the DDDA and the site was last valued at €50 million.