110 JOBS LOST AS IQON TECHNOLOGIES GOES INTO LIQUIDATION
MANAGING DIRECTOR SAYS DELL’S EXPANSION INTO RETAIL MARKET WAS A SERIOUS BLOW January 2008
THE news that iQon Technologies is going into liquidation with the loss of nearly 110 jobs is a personal blow for managing director Ciarán O’Donoghue, who fights hard to save the company.
An eleventh hour attempt to put together a rescue package fails to materialise, resulting in the High Court ordering iQon into liquidation.
Unlike some previous announcements of closures in Dundalk, this is a much more personal story.
‘It is a day I thought I would never see,’ says Mr. O’Donoghue, who makes the announcement to a devastated workforce.
‘When we break up for Christmas, all the indications are that a deal can be reached.’
However, the news over Christmas that Dell will be expanding into the retail market, comes as a blow to these plans, and serves to dissuade potential investors.
‘ The problem for us is that we are a small company up against huge players in the industry,’ Mr. O’Donoghue continues.
‘ There are four major Chinese firms which are dominating computer manufacturing at the moment, and it’s very difficult to compete.’
He adds a lot of people say they are bucking the trend where big companies dominate the market, but by the beginning of 2006 things are on a downward spiral.
The best year is 2005, and they attempt to build on this success and protect themselves against a changing market by diversifying into electronic products like M3 players and LCD televisions.
‘We try to get away from the dependency on computers, but the speed of decline in the market really catches us off guard.
‘We know things are changing, but don’t expect it to change so fast.’
Mr. O’Donoghue goes on they attempt to do a ‘complete turn-about’ and see the process of going into examinership as a means of accelerating the turn around.
‘Of course, any company that goes into examinership is in trouble, but we never see it that way, and I went into the process with the utmost confidence.’
The company begins as Romak Computers in 1994 under the leadership of Dermot McElroy, and after several years humble origins give way to a major expansion when it is launched in 1998 as iQon.
A significant move comes when they relocate from Coe’s Road to the former Quantum facility in Finnabair industrial park.
A huge factor in the demise of iQon is a €20 million contract signed with Tesco UK in 2004.
The supermarket giant’s ‘no quibble’ return policy means that significant numbers of laptops and computers are returned.
Tesco customers take back their PCs just before the one-year return policy expires, in a bid to get new machines, and it is estimated iQon has to take back €6 million worth of products as a result.
The High Court, which appoints a liquidator, Michael McAteer, of Foster McAteer, hears the company has liabilities of more than €7 million.