Orla Kiely creditors owed £7.25m, most to get no money back

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 5, 2018

The demise of the Orla Kiely fashion and lifestyle empire came with debts of €8.1 million (£7.25 million) and the firm’s unsecured creditors are owed around £5 million.

Administrators Chris Newell and Simon Bonney of Quantuma, have said that those unsecured creditors won’t get any of their money back.

Orla Kiely had built up a large fan base, including a raft of celebrities, for her quirky retro-inspired floral prints, but some analysts said her firm had over-diversified and was too widely available, undermining its pricing power. The Dublin-based company ceased trading in September as the retail environment stayed tough and unforgiving.

The administrators have filed a report with Companies House saying that the business had been profitable earlier this century but later "began to experience difficulties", partly due to the struggling retail sector.

The firm’s largest creditor is its bank, Metro Bank, which is owed £2.2 million and the UK tax authorities are also on the creditor list. Preferential creditors will receive 70% of their money back but ordinary creditors will be left empty-handed. The unsecured list includes "trade and expense creditors”, The Times reported, while the former directors, Kiely and her husband Dermott Rowan are owed £1 million. The company’s ex-employees are owed more than £315,000.