Dr Pierce Lyons has committed to keeping manufacturing at Keenan’s Borris factory and growing the brand across the world.

In an exclusive interview that will be published in full in next week’s KPMG/IFJ Agribusiness report, Dr Lyons, founder and president of Alltech has committed to keeping manufacturing at Keenan’s Borris factory.

He said: “If you look to our past, we don’t buy companies to sell them, to shut them down and let people go. We buy companies to grow them.”

ADVERTISEMENT

While he said there will be a change, he is fully committed to growing the Keenan business.

He said they will focus on filling capacity at the Borris factory and that this is the first priority.

While a figure has not been disclosed of how much Alltech bought the business for from the receiver, it is understood to be in the single millions.

However, it would then have had to fund significant working capital to run the business.

When Keenan’s went into receivership in April, it is understood it had debts of some €13m, with about €9m owed to its main lender, Bank of Ireland.

As with any receivership, the order of settlement of debts usually prioritises the bank debt, then preferred creditors such as any tax settlements, followed by trade creditors and finally shareholders.

In this case it is likely creditors will have to use their credit insurance to reclaim up to 90% of what is owed to them at the point at which it went into receivership.