Ousted Lynch transformed debt-laden, ailing co-op into consumer food giant

PHILIP LYNCH can take a share of the credit for the in-store baked baguettes that can be found in virtually every Irish corner shop and supermarket these days.

In 1983, the Corkman became chief executive of IAWS, a struggling, debt-laden supplier of animal feed and fertilizer to farmers.

During the 1980s, he expanded the business through the purchase of Boland’s Mills and then its rival, his old employer, RH Hall, and oversaw its flotation on the Dublin market in 1988.

Ten years on, IAWS paid €65 million for Cuisine de France, the Tallaght-based bakery that sold “artisan breads” and other specialised products to retailers.

The deal led to the proliferation of the in-store baked breads in Ireland.

It had similar success in Britain under the Delice de France brand, and in the Americas through a joint venture with Tim Horton’s and the purchase of La Brea Bakery.

When he left in 2003, IAWS’s evolution from mundane co-op to consumer foods giant was complete and the group had some €1 billion in revenues.

These days, thanks to a merger with a Swiss rival, it is known as Aryzta.

Having transformed IAWS once, Lynch could not resist doing it a second time. He took over at the helm of the old IAWS co-op entity, which held shares in the IAWS group.

A group of farmers’ co-ops, which made €400 million from the transformation of the group, held stakes in this entity. Lynch took over and renamed it One51. Between 2004 and 2007, it raised €170 million from the original co-op shareholders and clients of NCB stockbrokers.

It held an assortment of assets, including bakery Irish Pride, a stake in Greenore Port in Co Louth, a fertilizer company, malting business and property.

It began buying others. These included a stake in utilities group, NTR, which netted it €70 million in 2007 as a result of the €1 billion sale of energy business, Airtricity, in which NTR was a significant shareholder, to Scottish Southern Energy.

At that stage, it looked like Lynch still had the Midas touch. However, as One51 began building a stake in financial services group, IFG, and in ferry operator, Irish Continental Group (ICG), observers became more sceptical.

One51 began buying into ICG at a time when its management, led by Eamon Rothwell, was bidding to take the group private. The Lynch-led investor was paying a premium to the €18.50 offer on the table.

It then joined forces with the Cork-based Doyle shipping group to form the Moonduster consortium and launch a rival bid to Rothwell’s. The two sides subsequently decided to join forces to buy out ICG, but could never raise the finance. Doyle sold out recently.

Up to yesterday, Lynch fought off a number of attempts by shareholders to oust him from One51.

In the meantime, he has had other problems. Recently, the High Court reserved judgment on a case taken by the businessman and his family to prevent AIB seeking the repayment of a €25 million loan.

The loan was given to the Lynches and developer Gerry Conlan in 2007 to fund the purchase of development land in Waterford.

AIB claimed that the loan gave it recourse to all the borrowers to recover the cash.

However, the family, who sued the bank and two law firms, LK Shields and Matheson Ormsby Prentice, maintain that the terms limited the security to the property, and gave the bank no recourse to them personally.