SPECTRA PHOTO (Retail), the company founded by Irish photography entrepreneur Xavier McAuliffe, is to hold a creditors’ meeting later this month.

In a notice published yesterday in the Irish Daily Mail, the company said a meeting of Spectra Photo creditors would take place in Tralee on June 17th for the purposes mentioned in Section 267 and 268 of the Companies Act.

The notice of a creditors meeting is often an indication that a company is in financial difficulty.

Section 267 and 268 of the Companies Act concern the appointment of a liquidator for the purpose of winding up a company and distributing its assets.

Attempts to contact Mr McAuliffe yesterday evening to clarify the situation were unsuccessful.

Spectra Photo (Retail) trades under the business names of Spectra Photo and Spectra, the Digital Store, as well as skincream distributor H2O.

Mr McAuliffe founded the company in his home town of Listowel, Co Kerry, in 1970, offering processing services to chemists.

The Spectra name came from a UK-based film processing company that Mr McAuliffe bought out of liquidation.

From the original store in Listowel, the company expanded aggressively, buying out much of its competition. The company is understood to have up to 35 stores around the State.

However, like many in the business, Spectra has struggled to come to terms with the digital photographic revolution.

In an interview last year, Mr McAuliffe said the photographic side of his business was largely run by his daughter Sinead.

However, in a filing to Companies Office in the last fortnight, Spectra said Sinead had resigned as a director of Spectra Photo (Retail) with effect from May 2008.

The company’s most recent auditor’s report, for 2007, said Spectra Photo (Retail) had incurred losses of close to €250,000 in 2007.

Most of the shares in Spectra Photo (Retail) are owned by Mr McAuliffe through a network of companies, including Brookstone, Postphoto, Spectra Group Holdings and McAuliffe Investments.

A New Zealand-registered firm, Kilberry Company Ltd, is also a significant shareholder. Its listed directors both have Dublin addresses, although the ultimate shareholder, Stephanie Margaret Gee, is based in New Zealand.

A photographer by profession, Mr McAuliffe expanded the business successfully into retail and it became the first company to offer an overnight photograph printing service in the 1980s.

It also became the distributor for Kodak camera products in Ireland and at its peak processed more than five million films a year.

According to the 2009 Sunday Timesrich list, Mr McAuliffe is worth €39 million as a result of his interests in photography businesses and property investments.

Spectra Group, of which Spectra Photo (Retail) is a part, is one of the largest private companies in Ireland, buying a number of hotels and developments in Ireland and overseas.