Bill Cullen’s 5-star Muckross hotel goes into receivership

The financial woes of Bill Cullen, once the country’s best known car dealer, continue.

The five-star Muckross Park Hotel, in Killarney, Co Kerry, co-owned by Mr Cullen and his partner Jackie Lavin, has gone into receivership.

Declan Taite, of RSM Farrell Grant Sparks, has been appointed receiver and manager to Muckross Park Hotel Ltd, Boisdale Holdings Ltd, Silvermire Properties Ltd and certain assets of William Cullen, it was confirmed yesterday.

Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin said they were very shocked by the “aggressive actions’’ of ACC who had moved against the business with no prior warning.

“Only six weeks ago, they [ACC] were congratulating us on an amazing turning around of the business into profitability and said we were an example of how to turn around a business into a major success,’’ they said.

The couple also said they would do everything in their power to maintain the 105 jobs in the hotel.

Last October, Ulster Bank appointed a receiver to Glencullen Holdings, which operated Mr Cullen’s two remaining car dealerships, in Swords and Liffey Valley in Dublin, with the bank reportedly owed around €12m

In a statement, meanwhile, the receiver’s team and Muckross Park Hotel management said the receivership would not have any impact on current or future bookings.

“The receiver will continue to trade the hotel as normal and maintain employment in the area. All deposits and gift vouchers will be honoured as heretofore,’’ it added.

“It is intended that the hotel will continue to grow its business and revenue over the course of the receivership.”

The celebrity couple acquired the hotel, on the edge of Killarney National Park, in 1990, and invested millions in upgrading it.

Accounts filed in Aug 2012 showed that Mr Cullen, who fronted TV3’s The Apprentice, has ploughed almost €10m into the hotel, including €349,061 in 2011.

The couple had at all times remained upbeat about the hotel and predicted profitability going forward.

Well-known Killarney hotelier Michael Rosney, spokesman for the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, said it was a shame that such a fine operation should run into such financial difficulties.

“This is probably symptomatic of the economy in general right now,” he said.