Retail Logistics, the company at the centre of the Superquinn support money controversy, has been wound up.
The company held a meeting in Dublin last week at which its members, listed as former Superquinn executive Brendan Rooney and his wife Carmel, quietly finalised a voluntary winding up.
Documents filed with the Companies Office in Dublin show that the company had an estimated surplus of assets over liabilities of £120,000 when Mr Owen Purcell, a chartered accountant was appointed liquidator last year. The destination of this surplus on the winding up of the company is unclear.
Retail Logistics was set up by Superquinn in 1988 after the practice of "hello money" was banned under the Groceries Act in 1987.
Hello money referred to the contributions that supermarkets sought from suppliers towards the costs of opening up new stores. Under the Act, retailers were banned from receiving any "payment or allowance from suppliers on the opening of a new retail outlet".
Senator Feargal Quinn, the chief executive of Superquinn, described Retail Logistics as part of a "formula" that stayed within the law. Suppliers made "support payments" to Retail Logistics and Superquinn then charged the company a "management fee". The company was not owned by Superquinn but by Mr Rooney and his wife, each of whom held one of the two £1 shares in the company.
The existence of Retail Logistics came to light last year after the company sought support payments from suppliers when it opened its new store in Dundalk, Co Louth.
The Director of Consumer Affairs Ms Carmel Foley investigated complaints from the suppliers and in April last year, instructed the company to stop seeking support money or face High Court action. Superquinn complied with the instruction just hours before the deadline.
The decision to wind up the company was not taken until last August, when Mr Purcell was appointed. The documents relating to the winding up were presented by John Woods, the Blackrock, Co Dublin, accountancy firm that also counts Superquinn among its clients.
John Woods has since merged with the Dublin practice of Grant Thornton. Mr Purcell was not available last night. The certificate of solvency prepared as part of the winding up process showed the company had £120,512 in cash.
