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 Gleeson Group, the Borrisoleigh, Co.Tipperary based drinks distributor, has acquired the Gilbeys wine business from Diageo in a deal understood to be worth close to €6 million.
The deal was signed off on in recent days and followed approaches from a number of potential bidders. It is understood that Gleeson Group will continue to use the Gilbeys name and that all staff working at the wine firm will transfer to the new owner. Gleeson Group owns and distributes a number of well known brands including Tipperary Water, Finches soft drinks and Bavaria beer.
The firm did a refinancing deal earlier this year, which gave it a €25 million war chest for future acquisitions.
A spokeswoman for Diageo confirmed the transaction had taken place, but refused to comment on the details of the transfer, since the deal was subject to the regulatory approval of the Competition Authority, a process that is expected to take up to three months to conclude.
Diageo, which owns Guinness and Baileys, has had previous dealings with the Gleeson Group, which is owned by the local Cooney family. It sold Finches to the group in 2004, followed by its United Beverage wholesale business in 2005.
Industry sources state that the Gleeson Group previously controled about 2 per cent of the wine distribution market prior to the deal, while Gilbeys controled about 13 per cent.
Sales at Gleeson Group fell by almost €20 million last year to €230 million, and pre-tax profits were down by 10 per cent to €2.7 million. No dividend was paid to the Cooney family, compared with €2.5 million in 2008.
On Saturday 19th June Thurles Credit Union held its first Members’ Cash Draw for 2010/11 in the Banking Area at Credit Union House, Parnell Street.
Acting Mayor of Thurles Councillor Michael Cleary attended the draw as guest of honour. Attendees who witnessed the draw included Credit Union Members, Directors, Supervisors and Staff.
The original Members’ Car Draw commenced in 2001, and to date there have been 65 major prize winners.
 Following a review of the draw, the Board of Directors decided to amend the draw to a ‘Cash Draw’ as the vast majority of previous winners opted to take a cash prize instead of a car. Credit Union members approved this change at last year’s AGM. Almost 4,000 members have now registered for the Members’ Cash Draw in 2010/2011.
Pictured here at the June Members Cash Draw were (l to r): Anne Tynan (C.U. Director), Paddy Crowe (Supervisor) , Councillor Michael Cleary (Acting Mayor of Thurles), Frank Connolly (Credit Union President), Donal Scannell (CEO Thurles Credit Union) and DJ Darcy (C.U. Director).
Acting Mayor Michael Cleary drew the winning numbers for the 4 cash prizes and winners have been announced as follows:
Michael and Christina Grainger, Corbally, Thurles, were the lucky winners of the first prize of €10,000.
Miriam O’ Brien, River Street, Killenaule and Mary Ryan, Fennor House, Urlingford both won cash prizes of €1,000.
The final cash prize of €500 went to Helen Condon, Gleann Ri, Holycross.
Congratulations and well done to all involved.
 The recent announcement of a proposed Casino for the village of TwoMileBorris, Thurles, Co.Tipperary, could be closer than we think, if the present Government were to release details of their proposed intended changes to the Gaming and Lotteries Act .
This outdated legislation, The Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1956, is a major hurdle which currently prevents Ireland from putting in place a proper regulatory regime that would help this country to become a major E-Commerce hub for, in particular, the global online-casino business.
A major review of the present Gaming and Lotteries Act, which began in mid 2009, is now complete and a decision from the Government on intended changes is slow to materialise. A recent speech by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD given to the horse-racing industry, recently, suggests the industry would receive financial support into the future, through taxes on online betting, so what is the plan and why the delay in these recessionary times?
Properly implemented and governed, the introduction of a new Act has the potential to create some 5,000 to 8,000 new jobs for e-commerce professionals, web developers, accountants, business analysts and mathematicians. Properly legislated and implemented changes to this Act, introduced immediately, would mean that if Ireland were to capture a mere 5% share of the present global online Casino business, it would immediately represent an Irish sector worth at least €2 billion.
Any changes which would open up this present outdated legislation, must first ensure that those vulnerable, including young people, are protected and that measures are formulated to ensure gambling is kept free of criminal elements, through its business being both fairly and transparently conducted.
Any changes to the present 1956 Gaming and Lotteries Act should include a new strong regulatory body, be free of all / any government interference and should also have under its umbrella, control over the present National Lottery, proceeds of the latter which appears presently to be the gift of government ministers. Irish National Lottery Sports Capital Grant Allocations in the past, appear to show a clear bias towards the geographical areas represented by the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism and the Minister for Finance. This bias is the result of the procedures by which the funds are allocated.
The report by the Central Bank Governor, Patrick Honohan, clearly indicates that the Irish banking crisis was caused by excessive land and property lending by the Irish banks themselves and he confirms that the failure of Wall Street’s Lehman Brothers was “not decisive”.
So in brief, although International pressure somewhat contributed to the intensity of our Irish banking crisis, the characteristic of this problem were mostly domestic. Mr Honohan also states that house prices had been dropping for some 18 months prior to the collapse of the now infamous Lehman Brothers, back in September 2008.
 Patrick Honohan Central Bank Governor. Speaking to Thurles.Info this morning, following the publication of the first reports into the causes of our banking crisis, North Tipperary Deputy Noel Coonan stated that independent experts have now confirmed that Brian Cowen and his Government were 100% guilty of gross failures in this country’s economic management and North Tipperary taxpayers are amongst those who have been left to pay the price.
Deputy Coonan stated:
“No matter how much spin Brian Cowen puts on the reports carried out by the Central Bank governor and International Banking experts, it has been affirmatively laid out in black and white that the banking crisis was not caused by Lehman Brothers, but by bad policy making decisions on our own back yard.”
In his report Patrick Holohan, said: “The weaknesses of Irish banks were not caused by the interruption of the flow of cheap money from abroad,” and he also commented: “Fiscal policy and budgetary measures aimed at boosting the construction sector, were significant factors in contributing to the unsustainable structure of spending.”
Continue reading Banking Crisis Reports
A new €3.6 million building was opened this week in the Tipperary Technology Park in Thurles.
This Park is owned and managed by Shannon Development and is promoted in co-operation with IDA Ireland, Thurles Chamber, Thurles Town Council, Tipperary North County Council, Thurles Marketing Group and the private sector.
The new building, ‘Innovation Works 3’, is now the third building in this Technology Park and brings the total investment by Shannon Development in this parkland venture to €7.4 million.
This new building comprises a 21,500 sq/ft two-storey office building and associated site works including an increase to the existing car parking area, bringing a total industrial space in the Park to now over 45,000sq/ft.
Shannon Development has now 57 Business Technology Parks and Industrial Estates right across the Shannon Region which includes counties Clare, North Kerry, Limerick, South Offaly and North Tipperary. These parks feature turn key state of the art Office Accommodation, Distribution Warehousing and Incubation Spaces, to meet the demands of small or large scale businesses with either local or international interests.
Tipperary Technology Park is home to a number of investment projects and it has a core facility for incubating and growing new Irish technology companies. Present clients range from those operating in the cutting edge sphere of nano-biomaterials, to clients in digital cinema, to the international services sector and highlight Thurles as a superb location for entrepreneurship, in both tourism and business.
Businesses requiring further information on Tipperary Technology Park should contact Mr Brian Keating, Development Manager, at Shannon Development Tipperary Technology Park, Thurles, Tel: 086-2843803 or 0504-29300, or email: keatingb@shannondevelopment.ie
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Mr Batt O’Keeffe TD, officially opened the building, against a backdrop of over 7,125 people currently unemployed in North Tipperary and with 196 further persons having just joined the dole queue in May of this year.
The Irish national overall unemployment figures now stand at over 13.7%, registering the highest number of unemployed people ever, in the history of the Irish State, with 439,100 now in receipt of support.
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