Mannok
Mannok, formerly the QUINN group, is a business group headquartered in Derrylin, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The group has ventured into cement and concrete products, container glass, general insurance, radiators, plastics, hotels, and real estate. It was formed by Seán Quinn in 1973, developing from a small quarrying operation in Derrylin into a large organization, employing over 8,000 people in various locations throughout Europe.
From 2004 the group saw great expansion throughout Europe, with radiator and plastic manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Slovakia. The group property portfolio also includes hotel and business centres in Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, and Russia. Its first venture into the cement industry was in 1989. The commissioning of its first container glass plant was in 1998. It acquired the health insurer Bupa Ireland in 2007.
On 30 March 2010, following an application by the Central Bank of Ireland, the High Court appointed joint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance Limited.
In April 2011, a share receiver was appointed to Anglo Irish Bank, who took control of the Quinn family's equity interest in the Quinn Group. Seán Quinn and his family no longer have any role in the management, operations or ownership of the group. Seán Quinn was declared bankrupt in the Republic of Ireland on 16 January 2012.
In November 2013, the group was renamed from QUINN to Aventas. In 2014, the group was renamed as Quinn Industrial Holdings. In 2020, the company rebranded as Mannok.
Financial situation
As a private company registered in Ireland, it files annual statements with the Companies Registration Office. The last accounts were filed in October 2009. The company reported a net profit of €68.9 million for the year to December 2008, based on gross sales of €2,264.4 million. Although it had reported an operating profit in its two main divisions, insurance and non-insurance for each of the last 3 years, the company was impacted by significant provisions in 2006 and 2007.Despite the reported profit of €69.9 million in the year to December 2008, the Group's shareholders equity fell by over €220 million in the year, partly due to a €200 million distribution and other recognized losses that were not applied to the Income Statement but appeared directly in shareholders equity. Over the 3-year period to December 2008, the Group revalued upward its assets and investments by a net cumulative €306 million, which positively impacted shareholders equity. Over the same period it took a charge to equity of a net cumulative €312 million due to adverse exchange rate movements.
Further complicating the financial picture of the Group's financial statements is a collection of other related party transactions. In the year to December 2008, the Group reported an income of €150 million from the Quinn family and related entities, for services provided by the Group including: "the identification of sites for acquisition and development, the negotiation of purchase price, the negotiation and arrangement of financing, the engagement of developers and related professional advisors and the ongoing monitoring of the projects through the construction phase." For accounting purposes, these incomes, totaling €221 million in 2008, would have been included in the income statement that lead to the reported profit of €68.9 million in the year to December 2008.
At the end of December 2008, the Quinn family and related undertakings had loans of €891.3 million to Quinn Group Limited. The annual report for 2008 states in the "related party transactions" section that Group had taken a total of €888m of provisions related to loans given to family controlled property companies, investment and finance companies, and other family controlled companies. Of these provisions, €785.6 million related to the investment and finance companies which includes Quinn Finance Holdings, the entity that owned an economic interest of 15% in Anglo Irish Bank. Provisions of €888m accounted for against the €891m of loans, may indicate the family and the related entities may be unlikely to repay over 99% of these loans to Group.
In April 2011 Kieran Wallace of KPMG was appointed as share receiver to Anglo Irish Bank and took control of the Quinn family's equity interest in Quinn Group. Sean Quinn and the Quinn family no longer have any role in the management, operations or ownership of the Quinn Group. Quinn was declared bankrupt on 11 November 2011 in Northern Ireland; this was annulled on appeal but he was declared bankrupt in the Republic of Ireland on 16 January 2012.
Divisions
Manufacturing
The manufacturing division's main activities are the manufacture and supply of cement and concrete products including, rooftiles, prestress flooring, Quinn-lite blocks, polystyrene insulation products, tarmac and general quarry products. QUINN Quarries are involved in the extraction and processing of sand and gravel since the 1970s, the Quarries Division of the Group still produces these products today. Quarry stone, washed sand, gravel, ready mixed concrete and concrete blocks are all produced at Quinn plants. The second quarry in Williamstown, County Galway was founded in 1977 to supply Galway and the surrounding counties with quarry and concrete products.Rooftiles
QUINN Rooftiles commenced production in 1982, with a purpose built factory at Gortmullen, Derrylin. This first plant was commissioned in 1982. However, due to market demand a new factory built on the existing site commenced production in 2001 and was expanded again in 2005. Quinn Rooftiles is a major supplier to the construction sector throughout the Republic of Ireland. QUINN Prestressed began producing prestressed concrete products in 1984. All of these products are used in a range of domestic and industrial building applications. QUINN Lite produces lightweight thermal blocks for use in the construction of internal and external walls and the inner and outer leaves of cavity walls. QUINN Lite Pac, Granard, County Longford was founded in 1975 to produce and distribute expanded polystyrene thermal insulation products for the construction industry. The product is an expanded polystyrene board for insulating floors. A large proportion of this product is used in the insulation of commercial, industrial and domestic buildings.Therm
QUINN Therm, at Scotchtown, Ballyconnell, County Cavan was commissioned in October 2004 to produce and distribute rigid polyurethane thermal insulation products for the Irish and UK markets. Aventas Therm produces rigid foam board for cavity wall insulation. QUINN Tarmac was established in 1994 to produce a range of blacktop products. Aventas Cement has been in production since 1989 at its Derrylin site using local raw material from the quarry facilities. Because of increasing demand from the construction sector, a second plant was commissioned in 2000 in the northern part of the Republic of Ireland, outside the small town of Ballyconnell and close to the Northern Ireland border.Plastics
In May 2004, the group acquired Barlo Group PLC. This led to the announcement of the formation of Quinn Plastics on 1 January 2005. Barlo Plastics was created in 1998 by the merger of four plastic sheet producers and further expanded by four sheet extrusion companies in 1999 and 2000. The company's main business lies in the production of domestic and industrial transparent plastic sheet products, including building and construction, interior design and safety. It produces 90,000 tonnes annually and employs over 700 people. Headquartered in Derrylin, County Fermanagh, the company has operating facilities in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Slovakia, the UK and the Czech Republic. In 2005, the company purchased Polyex, a UK start-up business that is now the base for their Alfreton production site. It provides products for many different applications. In October 2013, it was rebranded as Polycasa. In 2015, the group sold Polycasa to Swiss company, Schweiter Technologies, for a price of €120 million.Packaging
QUINN Packaging has provided rigid packaging for the food industry from its plant in Newbridge since the 1980s, when the markets for dairy spreads and yellow fats emerged. Quinn packaging also has a factory in Ballyconnell, built in 2006, that produces food trays, film and thin gauge sheet for the food packaging industry.Power
As a large user of electricity within its manufacturing base, it constructed a five megawatt wind farm in 1995 on the Slieve Rushen Mountain, which nestles behind the core manufacturing base of the Group at Derrylin. This was further complemented in 2004 by the addition of a 13.5-megawatt wind farm at Snugborough, Ballyconnell, County Cavan. The power it generates is fed into the National Grid. The Group is in the planning stages of further developments in this area. These are set to include a €300 million, 450-megawatt combined cycle gas turbine in County Louth, which has been approved and fast-tracked by An Bord Pleanala under the state's Strategic Infrastructure Bill. It will supply up to 8% of Ireland's peak demand and is set to come online in 2010 despite the slump. Plans for a similar project in County Galway are at a pre-consultation stage. Quinn Environmental also operate a small 500 kW Landfill gas utilization plant at their Lisbane landfill site in Tandragee, County Armagh, which supplies energy to the NIE grid.Glass
In 1998, the Group moved into the container glass market with the establishment of QUINN Glass, which manufactures glass containers for the food and beverage industries, with operations in Ireland and the UK. The first plant went into production at the end of 1998, producing a range of flint, green and amber containers. The plant is based in Derrylin and employs over 370 staff with an annual production capacity of 720 million containers. This is expected to increase to 830 million units in 2008 with the completion of a furnace rebuild at the plant. Quinn Glass is one of only a handful of plants worldwide where bottles can be manufactured and filled on a single site. It features one of the largest automated warehouses in Europe, capable of handling 282,000 pallets of filled and unfilled glass containers.In 2005, it expanded, and built a second plant at Elton, Cheshire, creating over 550 new jobs. It produces 20 per cent of the UK's glass container requirements and provides a glass packaging, filling and distribution service for the drinks industry. The facilities at the plant include a beverage filling hall, warehousing, two glass melting furnaces and 13 production lines. The capacity of the second plant is currently 1.2 billion units, with production capacity of both plants estimated to be 2.4 billion units in 2008. The plant has five lines capable of bottling a total of 400 bottles of wine, or 1,000 bottles of beer a minute. Having manufacturing and bottling on the same site can reduce costs and keep prices competitive. By offering bottling services, there is the potential for glass makers to win more business as an overflow plant in times of high demand, and it is as a contract packing operation that the greatest benefits from bottling lines are likely to be had. However, the plant was constructed without the correct planning permission, and on 8 April 2009, the High Court ruled that it should be demolished.
Quinn have announced their intention to appeal the decision.