YEOMAN International has acquired the debt of Tipperary Crystal and has appointed a receiver to the glass company. The cash rich financial services company is understood to have put proposals to the receiver aimed at securing the long term future of Tipperary Crystal, including the retention of the 81 jobs.
Accountant Mr John McStay was appointed receiver to the firm last Friday. He has put the plant on sale as a going concern and is understood to have had a number of enquiries. A quick sale is being sought so that contracts in progress will not be affected.
Tipperary Crystal was set up in 1988 by six people, including some former Waterford Crystal workers, who had taken redundancy terms from Waterford. The company, which produces mouth blown hand cut crystal, has an annual turnover of around £2.5 million.
Sources said the underlying business was profitable bit the company had run up large debts. It is understood to have owed Allied Irish Banks up to £1 million. In addition, the company needs to invest in upgrading machinery and facilities.
AIB is the registered holder in the Companies Office of a charge on Tipperary. The company was in the process of restructuring when Yeoman took over the borrowings from AIB. A spokesman from Yeoman confirmed its involvement last night.
Yeoman International is a Shannon based leasing group founded by Mr Paul Coulson. It is a cash rich company. In 1994, the company received compensation of £35 million from London merchant bank S.G. Warburg after a disastrous acquisition in Britain and it made a £34 million gain on the purchase of its own debts.
After the distribution of some £20 million of surplus funds to shareholders, the company was restructured and its ordinary shares were cancelled. At that time, Mr Coulson said the company was developing further activities in Shannon to take advantage of its 10 per cent tax status.
The company spokesman would not comment last night on how the purchase of the Tipperary Crystal debt fits in with Yeoman's business plans.
Based in Carrick on Suir, Tipperary Crystal sells crystal with a 33 per cent lead content into the US, Australia, Japan and the EU as well as the Irish market.
In November 1992 control off the company passed to Mr Ray Stafford, chairman of Clanwilliam Holdings and international vice president of Forest Laboratories, a publicly quoted $2 billion US based healthcare firm.
He is understood to have invested about £600,000 in the company, which also raised about £1 million through the Business Expansion Scheme.
