Rescue plan sought for Irish Fairy Door Company

The company behind the Irish Fairy Door brand has appointed an adviser to work out a restructuring plan for the business under the State’s new “examinership light’” process, designed to help save small businesses that are potentially viable but insolvent.

CEBL Ltd, founded by Aoife Lawler and Niamh Sherwin Barry with their husbands Gavin Lawler and Oisin Barry in 2013, makes wooden Irish fairy doors and associated products for children, exporting to customers in the US and abroad.

The business first entered the limelight after an appearance on The Late Late Toy Show in 2014 and has boasted celebrity customers including Kourtney Kardashian and rugby international Paul O’Connell.

A spokeswoman for the Enterprise Ireland-backed company told The Irish Times that the directors “are very confident” that the Irish Fairy Door Company will be able to successfully exit the Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process (Scarp) “within a short period of time”.

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On May 2nd, the company appointed accountant Joe Walsh as its process adviser under the scheme, introduced by the Government in 2021 as a more cost effective alternative to the examinership process for small businesses.

Mr Walsh has 49 days from his date of appointment to work out a rescue plan which could involve writing down debts owed to creditors who will have the approve the scheme once it is finalised.

The most recent accounts for CEBL reveal that it had accumulated losses of €3.9 million at the end of 2020, having lost €268,137 in the year. The directors noted that the company’s performance “gives rise to concerns” about its “ability to continue operating as a going concern. They said: “This uncertainty could result in the company being unable to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business.”

Ms Barry, who resigned as a director in 2019, according to Companies Office filings, told The Irish Times in 2020 that Covid-19 had “a massive impact” on the company’s “bricks-and-mortar toy store sales”.

She said that a move to a new outsourced licensing model with Dublin-based Allied Imports had contributed to the company’s €422,011 loss in 2019.

Mr and Ms Lawler stepped away from the business in 2018 to form their own company, Innov8 Creative Academy. In the same year, CEBL also took on equity investment of €1.5 million through the Davy EII Tax Relief Fund 2017, a joint venture between Davy Stockbrokers and BDO Ireland.

Ms Barry and Ms Lawler, who were finalists in the 2017 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards, retained a stake in the business as of June 2021, according to its most recent annual return, although Ms Barry resigned as a director in 2019.