Barry’s Tea opts to give up limited liability status
Barry’s (Cork) Limited informed the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in the past few days that it intends to re-register with unlimited liability.
The move means the company, which is owned by the former Fine Gael foreign minister Peter Barry and his family, will not have to publish full financial details about the activities of the 104-year-old tea business.
Limited companies have to disclose a significant amount of information on sales, profits, staff numbers, directors’ salaries, dividends to shareholders and other transactions.
Opting for unlimited liability is not without risk. While the benefits are maintaining financial secrecy, the risks for companies and directors is extremely high. If the company were forced into bankruptcy or left open to a major claim, the personal assets of the directors could be appropriated to pay off creditors.
According to the last set of accounts filed at the CRO, Barry’s Tea made profits of €13.7 million in the year to end April 2003 on turnover of €24 million.
The Barry family have expanded beyond the eponymous tea business by teaming up with ICC Bank to buy consumer foods group Batchelors nearly two years ago.
They paid almost €50m for half of the business.
In recent weeks several prominent companies have also given up their limited liability status.
Bovale Developments, the Dublin construction firm run by builders Tom and Michael Bailey, and the owners of the giant trawler, Atlantic Dawn, have all applied to switch to unlimited liability.
The auditors of Atlantic Dawn resigned last year after saying the company had not been keeping proper books of account. The company subsequently made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners.
