Gaelic Gear goes Bust. Who is to blame?

[sammymaguire]

bad news that this could happen and that there is/was not a decent alternative to the monopoly that O'Neill's have on the GAA kit but to be honest, they quality and the challenge from a "fashion" perspective in being able to flog jerseys was not up to scratch

[NAG1]

My big issue with O'Neills would be that are they truly Irish made?

In this economic climate we should be insuring that the GAA are promoting Irish jobs esp in manufacturing. Im not sure if this is the case?

Sad to see a company go wrong that set out with good intentions of opening up a monopolised market but at the end of the day, their products were poor which was at least half their downfall!

[Bogball XV]

surely azzurri are still in business are they not.

Business didn't work, I'm sure Rois sees hundreds of better businesses a year go under - it's just the way of the world.

Also, they'd 3m in losses, but that's not what they owed, it's hard to know how much they owed at the end, from the figures mentioned, possibly not very much - although as usual in these cases, the revenue and possibly the banks were probably the main creditors.  Unfortunate for the investors and employees though.

[Kerry Mike]

but they have brilliant products which can last a lifetime.

Its not the Jersey its the man.

[ardal]

The GAA withdrew the licence in March 2010.  The accounts to June 2008 showed losses in excess of £3mill.  The failure of Gaelic Gear is nothing to do with the GAA's failure to renew the licence.

Hello planet earth. Ignore the accounts / debts for a minute, but are you saying that a company like Gaelic Gear who are targeting the GAA market wouldn't be able to get out of the hole a little easier if they'd retained the license? Please tell me you're a civil servant.

[T O Hare]

but they have brilliant products which can last a lifetime.

Its not the Jersey its the man.

Found a real old retro jersey from the 60's in the house made by Smyco in Ballbriggan.. Tempted to wear it on Saturday

[Kerry Mike]

I have a 1959 Kerry one, thats from before ye found out that football even existed !!

[T O Hare]

I have a 1959 Kerry one, thats from before ye found out that football even existed !!

was football not invneted in 1960

[Rois]

The GAA withdrew the licence in March 2010.  The accounts to June 2008 showed losses in excess of £3mill.  The failure of Gaelic Gear is nothing to do with the GAA's failure to renew the licence.

Hello planet earth. Ignore the accounts / debts for a minute, but are you saying that a company like Gaelic Gear who are targeting the GAA market wouldn't be able to get out of the hole a little easier if they'd retained the license? Please tell me you're a civil servant.

How can you ignore the accounts?  AQMP is saying that the hole was being dug way before the licence was withdrawn, ie they weren't functioning even with the licence.  I just took at look at the accounts.  In 2008 they made a loss of about £375k.  But before that, the losses accumulated to that date were about £2.9m.  This is 3 years before the licence was withdrawn, plus it was not in the time of economic recession.  Liabilities completely outweighed assets.  The company was fecked back in 2008 and I dread to think how much money that poor owner pumped in.   

[A Quinn Martin Production]

The GAA withdrew the licence in March 2010.  The accounts to June 2008 showed losses in excess of £3mill.  The failure of Gaelic Gear is nothing to do with the GAA's failure to renew the licence.

Hello planet earth. Ignore the accounts / debts for a minute, but are you saying that a company like Gaelic Gear who are targeting the GAA market wouldn't be able to get out of the hole a little easier if they'd retained the license? Please tell me you're a civil servant.

Hello planet earth....please tell me you're not involved in business

[A Quinn Martin Production]

The GAA withdrew the licence in March 2010.  The accounts to June 2008 showed losses in excess of £3mill.  The failure of Gaelic Gear is nothing to do with the GAA's failure to renew the licence.

Hello planet earth. Ignore the accounts / debts for a minute, but are you saying that a company like Gaelic Gear who are targeting the GAA market wouldn't be able to get out of the hole a little easier if they'd retained the license? Please tell me you're a civil servant.

How can you ignore the accounts?  AQMP is saying that the hole was being dug way before the licence was withdrawn, ie they weren't functioning even with the licence.  I just took at look at the accounts.  In 2008 they made a loss of about £375k.  But before that, the losses accumulated to that date were about £2.9m.  This is 3 years before the licence was withdrawn, plus it was not in the time of economic recession.  Liabilities completely outweighed assets.  The company was fecked back in 2008 and I dread to think how much money that poor owner pumped in.

Plus it's reported that he gave personal guarantees against some of the bank loans/overdraft.  Not pretty.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

  An old saying says that bad news comes  in three's .That's 2 Tyrone bad luck sories,Jerome,this guy and next up is Tyrone on Saturday.

The owner of Gaelic Gear is not from Tyrone.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

  An old saying says that bad news comes  in three's .That's 2 Tyrone bad luck sories,Jerome,this guy and next up is Tyrone on Saturday.

The owner of Gaelic Gear is not from Tyrone.

I'd heard he was.

Nah, not really a GAA man either, he just saw what he thought was a gap in the market.

[Rois]

Its surprising that the owners of the warehouse didnt accept the offer of the CVA - surely if HMRC are also listed as creditors that they will get first call on any assets of the wound-up business, whereas under the CVA the owners of the warehouse might have got x pence in the pound. As it would stand and assuming HMRC liabilities they will get x% of nothing...

Is that still the case?  I'm not convinced HMRC is paid before any other unsecured creditor these days, certainly not in the UK, and certainly not in administrations in NI, but liquidations may be different - I haven't seen one in years. 

[irunthev]

Gaelic Gear were very generous to London CB too back in 2005 or so but the real issue was quality. They just couldn't deliver a product that looked good, had quality and people could believe in. And it wasn't just their jerseys that were of poor quality. The t-shirts and track suits were pretty awful too. The Australian Board were also contracted to them in some way or another and all games at the State games were supposed to be played using Gaelic Gear balls. In general they would try and enforce the rule but it was like playing with an out-of-shape balloon. It's a pity that they didn't succeed as O'Neills really do have the whole thing sown up but at the end of the day, if your product isn't up to scratch then you have no right to succeed.
As for Campbell, I believe he is of Tyrone ancestry but not from there himself. Omagh I think. If I'm not mistaken he is a chemist by profession. I maybe wrong though.