Examiner appointed to ready-meals firm

A CORK ready-meals company that employs 125 people is said to have a reasonable prospect of survival following the appointment of an examiner.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly confirmed in the High Court that David Carson, of Deloitte, is examiner to Swissco Ltd, which operates a manufacturing plant in Little Island, Cork.

Swissco is part of a group of companies comprising Cresset, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Cuisine (ICL) Ltd, which is in turn owned by Singapore Food Industries (SFI) Ltd.

Cresset took over Swissco in 2004 and has invested €€15 million in developing a facility for the supply of meals to Ireland and Britain.

Its Irish customers include Superquinn, Musgraves and Cuisine de France.

The company's turnover grew slowly between 2003 and 2006 to €12.7m but is forecast to fall to €10.3m this year.

The application for examinership was made after an independent accountant expressed the view it could trade out of its difficulties.

The main reason for the decline in the company’s position was its failure to achieve sufficient sales volume and it proposes to achieve significant restructuring of its financial position.

The judge was told it was believed the company has a reasonable prospect of survival on the basis of a scheme of arrangement, confirmed continuing availability of discounting facilities by Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, investment of new funds and the introduction of additional sales volumes.

Among the company's creditors are the Chinese Overseas Bank Corporation which is owed €1.8m and Enterprise Ireland, which owns 76,000 cumulative preference shares at €1.25 each.

Justice Kelly noted Mr Carson’s interim report was supportive of the views of the independent accountant and Mr Carson had made some progress towards attracting investment to meet the firm’s future capital requirements.