Michael Carey steps down as chair of Enterprise Ireland and Housing AgencyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nThe interim examinership will give the company a short period of court protection as it aims to secure new investment to support the long-term future of the business.<\/p>\n
The firm has faced financial cash pressure arising from high ingredient cost inflation, general increases in cost of doing business and phased repayment arrangements of tax liabilities, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It is understood the company suffered with losses during its start-up period as it looked to develop large-scale manufacturing capabilities, during this period it was hit by impacts from Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted its growth at critical periods.<\/p>\n
Account for the company show its turnover had increased 82 per cent to \u20ac11.2 million in its 2024 financial year and that annual pretax losses had been cut from \u20ac5.2 million in 2023 to \u20ac2.2 million in 2024.<\/p>\n
An independent expert\u2019s report (IER) prepared by Luke Charleton, a restructuring partner at EY and presented to the High Court on Wednesday noted the companies behind the business have a \u201creasonable prospect\u201d of continuing as a going concern, subject to a successful restructuring. <\/p>\n
The company, as of November 2025, had generated a shareholder deficit of \u20ac17.8 million despite significantly improving revenue streams, the report found. The companies behind the business, had built up a consolidated \u20ac22.28 million in long term creditors, with a significant proportion due to a secured lender, Upstream Working Capital Limited.<\/p>\n
The report found that the company would be forecast to generate losses as high as \u20ac5 million in its 2026 financial year, adding to previous losses, but could break into profit in 2027.<\/p>\n
The IER found that the company had an operating capacity to produce \u20ac45 million of biscuits each year based on its current product mix, and would not require further capital investment to reach its forecast production volumes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a difficult decision, but we believe examinership offers the most constructive route to securing the future of the business. We have built a strong manufacturing business with a committed workforce, a diversified customer base and clear opportunities for growth.\u201d Mr Carey, East Coast Bakehouse chairman, said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is work to be done, we are confident that this process can conclude successfully and result in a strengthened business with positive long-term prospects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful for the continued support of our employees, customers, supplier and shareholders as we work through this process and seek to emerge with a stronger and more sustainable business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Carey stepped down from his roles as chairman of both EI and the Housing Agency in June 2025, following reports highlighting that East Coast Bakehouse was late in filing its accounts to the Companies Registration Office as required by law.<\/p>\n
Mr Carey, who was the first client of EI to become its chairman, acknowledged at the time that the late filing of East Coast Bakehouse\u2019s accounts could be a distraction for the agencies.<\/p>\n
It was said he took the decision to avoid any embarrassment for the ministers involved, James Browne in housing and Peter Burke in the Department of Enterprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Biscuit maker East Coast Bakehouse entered interim examinership on Wednesday following an application by the High Court amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,12586,16242,19,17,33549],"class_list":{"0":"post-287041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-enterprise-ireland","11":"tag-ey","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-michael-carey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115903235971740025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}