Rags To Riches
Rags to riches stories are a tremendous inspiration to new start up companies. However, when a person starts out creating a business, they have no idea that they may in fact be creating one of the largest companies in their country.
Sadly it does not always go to plan. Read the following to find out about the most amazing company downfall.
Rags To Riches To Rags
Facts
Who – Quinn Group
Location – Ireland
- 1973 – Business start up
- 2007 – Rich List. Became the richest man in Ireland
- 2011 – Filed for personal bankruptcy.
How did the demise of such a credible company come about?
- 2004 – Quinn paid 84M Euros for Barlo. 14M Euros more than the original employee buy out plan which was on the table.
- 2007 – Quinn paid £270 for Belfry with plans to spend £200M on redevelopment.
- 2006 – Pre-tax profits of 433Million Euros on turnover of 1.6 Billion Euros.
- 2007 Credit Crunch and start of slide to personal bankruptcy.
Read the complete article on this rags to riches true story here.
“Quinn Group’s acquisition of plastics and radiator group Barlo in 2004 also set knowledgeable tongues wagging. Tony Mullins, then Barlo’s chief executive, and his management team, submitted a €70m bid for the company only to be blown out of the water by the Quinn Group, which offered €84m. The MBO team, unable to justify matching or topping the Quinn bid, took the money on offer and most of them left the company shortly afterwards.
Even at the time, with the construction sector booming as never before, there were many who felt that the Quinn Group had seriously overpaid for Barlo.
Quinn Group followed this up by paying an incredible £270m for the Belfry, the plush golf resort outside Birmingham, UK, in 2005. It then announced plans for a £200m redevelopment of the resort.
However, it didn’t seem to matter. Despite apparently overpaying for assets and pursuing a high-risk investment strategy at Quinn Insurance, the Quinn Group seemed to go from strength to strength, reporting pre-tax profits of €433m on a turnover of €1.6bn in 2006.”
The determination and focus that must have done into building this company to such enormous heights in the first place has to be admired. That was surely no mean feat! Credit to the Quinn Group and who knows, is this the end or is the beginning?
On the other hand, lessons have to be learned from this case and it will surely go down in the history books or at least be logged to act as a warning to all fledgling up and coming rags to riches potential companies.
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