EP Mooney closes another sad day for the motor industry !

tellmewhy

Just heard !! Another sad day for the motor industry as EP Mooney closes its doors at lunch time after 36 years . The Greens must be really happy with themselves :mad:

E39MSport

tellmewhy wrote: »

Another sad day for the motor industry as EP Mooney closes its door at lunch time after 36 years . The Greens must be really happy with themselves :mad:

Green Party?

Bill. Is that you?

E39MSport

They went into voluntary liquidation at 11am this morning. That's Koping also.

robtri

Jesus...... thats a shame.... had worked witht he guys there many a time a good bunch...... very sorry to hear this..

yop

tellmewhy wrote: »

Just heard !! Another sad day for the motor industry as EP Mooney closes its doors at lunch time after 36 years . The Greens must be really happy with themselves :mad:

Why the green party???

vang

I expect many dealers are hanging by threads and hoping for some sales in January, but people are scared to spend or to commit to spending until they see what happens in the budget. If no scrappage deal comes in expect the worst.

yop

vang wrote: »

I expect many dealers are hanging by threads and hoping for some sales in January, but people are scared to spend or to commit to spending until they see what happens in the budget. If no scrappage deal comes in expect the worst.

But again a lot of this comes back to banks not giving out loans for cars, which is not helping sales.

Big Nasty

Does this apply to all branches including Koping?

Drummerboy08

Has anyone got a link to this, or is it hearsay? I know the showrooms were closed today, but there could be a hundred reasons for that...

Hellrazer

Drummerboy its not hearsay.I used to work for the group and have been talking to some of the lads I worked with and its 100% true.
Liquidator to be appointed.

Sad sad day for the motor trade--they always treated their staff well.

Healyc

Hellrazer wrote: »

Drummerboy its not hearsay.I used to work for the group and have been talking to some of the lads I worked with and its 100% true.
Liquidator to be appointed.

Yeah, just spoke to the service manager in one of the garages and it's true!

Sad day AGAIN for the irish motor industry

R.O.R

Tried to drop a Renault in for recall around 11.15 this morning and everything was locked up. Glad we didn't manage to get out earlier to do this tbh.

Shame to see them go and it's going to leave a big hole for a lot of marques as far as warranty work goes.

Stevie Dakota

Very grim news, makes you wonder who's next. I really hope things pick up soon.

Drummerboy08

R.O.R wrote: »

Shame to see them go and it's going to leave a big hole for a lot of marques as far as warranty work goes.

It's going to leave a big hole for the distributors too.

Nissan, Hyundai, Volvo, Renault, Honda, Opel, Suzuki.
Any i'm leaving out?

Speaking of garages closing, I drove by Autoplatz around the corner from EP Mooney's on the Long Mile Road, and they had no cars outside either. They gone too?

R.O.R

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Nissan, Hyundai, Volvo, Renault, Honda, Opel, Suzuki.
Any i'm leaving out?

FIAT
ALFA
Mitsubishi (MODO)

Big Nasty

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Speaking of garages closing, I drove by Autoplatz around the corner from EP Mooney's on the Long Mile Road, and they had no cars outside either. They gone too?

No rumours DB!

Also Chevrolet at Mooneys

Hellrazer

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Nissan, Hyundai, Volvo, Renault, Honda, Opel, Suzuki.
Any i'm leaving out?

Ssanyong,Fiat,Alfa,Chevrolet.

Mods been gone a while now R.O.R.--They were one of the first casualities.

Drummerboy08

It's getting quite scary out there now. Fcukin hell.

I'm off to find me steel underpants, cos I'm gonna be raped by another paycut come January at this rate.

jayotala

Sorry to see em go. Good bunch of lads in there.

Hellrazer

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I'm off to find me steel underpants, cos I'm gonna be raped by another paycut come January at this rate.

Well if I take any more cuts Im going on the dole--Id be better off.

smash

There's now no official GT-R dealer in the country!

kildarelad

Did they deal in Hondas as well?

Mick K

steve06 wrote: »

There's now no official GT-R dealer in the country!

I have to lol at that!



Shame tho,Whats the country coming to when long standing members of the trade are falling.:(

Owen

I think everytime a thread starts about a garage closure, the following should be copied and pasted so we can get it out of the way :

Tough times for those working there
They had it coming, robbing us blind in the good times
It's the Green's fault
It's not the Green's fault
They build a glass place to appease their egos
They didn't have a choice and had to build the new showrooms or loose the franchise
VRT needs to be done away with
More garages will close if VRT is done away with

And on and on and on and on.

IMHO, tough times for anyone still in the trade, and anyone who's job may be on the line. Best of luck to the EP Mooney staff in findind new jobs.

kildarelad

In fairness there was a few dealers you would like to see go but EP Mooneys were not one of them they had a good set up

Drummerboy08

Mick K wrote: »

Shame tho,Whats the country coming to when long standing members of the trade are falling.:(

I suppose to put it into perspective, the motor trade is a small piece of a very large pane of glass thats been broken. These losses seem alot bigger to us because we're involved in the trade, or are into cars.

For those who have nothing to do with the trade, and those that drive Tiida's, its no different than, say, O Brien's going into liquidation.

Im genuinely worried that any day now, we'll all be called in to say thats it, thanks for the effort. If it can happen to a group as big as EP Mooney's or Belgard, it can happen to anyone.

VolvoMan

I'm very sorry and shocked at the same time to hear that, as they seemed like one of the more reputable dealer groups. Koping were also among the biggest Volvo dealers in the country and as far as I know there is a helpful poster on here who worked for them.

CharlieCroker

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Speaking of garages closing, I drove by Autoplatz around the corner from EP Mooney's on the Long Mile Road, and they had no cars outside either. They gone too?

They're not gone out of business, just closed the Dublin branch, which they opened at the end of 2006.

They've another branch in Cashel which is still open (atm!!).

smash

EP Mooney owned the Autoplatz premises.

Big Nasty

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1125/epmooney.html

Car dealer EP Mooney in liquidation

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 15:37
Paraic Mooney, CEO of EP Mooney Garages, has confirmed that the company has been put into provisional liquidation since this morning at the behest of the directors.
The family-run Dublin business, best known as a Nissan dealer, was founded in 1971.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Not another one

jayotala

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I suppose to put it into perspective, the motor trade is a small piece of a very large pane of glass thats been broken. These losses seem alot bigger to us because we're involved in the trade, or are into cars.

For those who have nothing to do with the trade, and those that drive Tiida's, its no different than, say, O Brien's going into liquidation.

Im genuinely worried that any day now, we'll all be called in to say thats it, thanks for the effort. If it can happen to a group as big as EP Mooney's or Belgard, it can happen to anyone.

The bigger guys are going under because of over borrowing on the business. From a very good source, it was said Belgard motors were selling enough cars to survive had it not been for the loans securied on the business for outside reasons.

These guys have money and were using it to buy property and invest in other things, as we all would, the economy goes belly up and they start loosing. Look at the likes of Tom Hogan.

Its the little people that have to suffer.

RobAMerc

this is a useless anicdote I know but -

three years ago I was having my car VRT'd and overheard the people there say that they were not to accept cheques from EP Mooney anymore because of the frequency of them bouncing ?

Now - I didn't think you were allowed VRT with cheques ( Maybe dealers are ), but I did think - if someone the size of EP Mooney was in trouble then the whole industry must be fooked !

Drummerboy08

jayotala wrote: »

Belgard motors were selling enough cars to survive had it not been for the loans securied on the business for outside reasons.

And there lies the problems, not just in the motor trade, but in this country in general.

Greed.

Owen

RobAMerc wrote: »

Now - I didn't think you were allowed VRT with cheques

Many's the time I had to pay by cheque. They'd accept Cheque, or laser card to 1500 euros, or cash.

Redderneck

jayotala wrote: »

The bigger guys are going under because of over borrowing on the business. From a very good source, it was said Belgard motors were selling enough cars to survive had it not been for the loans securied on the business for outside reasons.

These guys have money and were using it to buy property and invest in other things, as we all would, the economy goes belly up and they start loosing. Look at the likes of Tom Hogan.

Its the little people that have to suffer.

Shame to see EP Mooney go. I dealt with them on my last/current car in 07 and found them to be head and shoulders above most of the other dealers I've talked to in Ireland over the years. Best of luck to the staff.

And yeah - there are certainly stories going around of some principals being leveraged to the hilt to fund non-core business dealings and this coming back to bit them in the a*s, but that goes on in any industry sector.

Lord Trollington

Because they are gone into liquidation, does that mean that their employee are not going to be paid redundacy??
Or do they have to claim an inability to pay in order not to pay, or how does that work?
I'd imagine a lot of their workers have been there for many years, and just a month before christmas makes it all the harder on them!

Drummerboy08

whycliff wrote: »

Because they are gone into liquidation, does that mean that their employee are not going to be paid redundacy??
Or do they have to claim an inability to pay in order not to pay, or how does that work?
I'd imagine a lot of their workers have been there for many years, and just a month before christmas makes it all the harder on them!

I dont think they will get paid by the Liquidator, but I think the social welfare will pay up to 60% of what is due.

sofia11

Sorry for people losing their jobs but on another note what about people who may have put a deposit on a new or newly new car, do they get compensated or have staff any advance notice of this? What about other garages could it be the same story for them? Not very reassuring for potential customers if there is no advance notice? Just making a point.

Drummerboy08

CEO Paraic Mooney has said that customers who have placed deposits will be facilitated either by returning their deposits or by asking a partner franchise to facilitate a purchase

Taken from RTE.ie
http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1125/epmooney.html

MarkN

Not related but Budget Travel gone today too.

Fairly serious when you hear of big names like this going under.

Someone turn the lights off on the way out of here yeh?

R.O.R

sofia11 wrote: »

Sorry for people losing their jobs but on another note what about people who may have put a deposit on a new or newly new car, do they get compensated or have staff any advance notice of this? What about other garages could it be the same story for them? Not very reassuring for potential customers if there is no advance notice? Just making a point.

I'm pretty sure that the staff had no idea at all that this was going to happen - probably until around 10.30 this morning.

We booked a vehicle in for warranty work yesterday and they took the booking no problem. We were also supposed to have a driver leaving her Volvo in to Koping this morning. Thankfully something came up and she had to change arrangements. Even luckier is that we got delayed leaving the office with the Van for warranty and didn't make it to EP Mooney until about 11.15. Everything was locked up there and there was a meeting going on inside.

Hopefully anyone who put a deposit down on a used car may be able to agree something with the liquidator. Surely it's better for them to sell a car retail rather than sending it to auction?

If it's a new car, contact the manufacturer or another dealer and see if someone can take over the order. That's what I've done with an Audi I had on order for next year from Belgard.

pajeroman

Staff are always last to know when a garage is about to close, The staff should check out www.redundancy.ie and check out there entitlements. They will get all they are owed through the liquidator. Believe me I know from the dealership i worked in closing earlier in the year.

APATTERSON

Hellrazer wrote: »

Ssanyong,Fiat,Alfa,Chevrolet.

Mods been gone a while now R.O.R.--They were one of the first casualities.

<snip>. Wouldn't be as funny if you worked there

Healyc

APATTERSON wrote: »

<snip>. Wouldn't be as funny if you worked there

What do you think R.O.R is implying????

RedorDead

APATTERSON wrote: »

<snip>. Wouldn't be as funny if you worked there

WTF?

RedorDead

More here:

EP Mooney goes into liquidation

EP Mooney Garages has confirmed that the company has been put into provisional liquidation at the behest of the directors.

The family-run Dublin business, which was established in 1971 grew to become the largest independent car retail group in Dublin and on numerous occasions was voted first for quality and customer care within the car industry.

The group operated numerous franchises including Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Hyundai, Renault, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Chevrolet, Opel and Ssangyong and Volvo.

The group had dealerships across Dublin in Tallaght, Naas Road and Long Mile Road.

Willowz78

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

It's going to leave a big hole for the distributors too.

Nissan, Hyundai, Volvo, Renault, Honda, Opel, Suzuki.
Any i'm leaving out?

Speaking of garages closing, I drove by Autoplatz around the corner from EP Mooney's on the Long Mile Road, and they had no cars outside either. They gone too?

Autoplatz was part of the Belgard Motor Group which closed last week.

-Chris-

APATTERSON wrote: »

<snip>. Wouldn't be as funny if you worked there

Hey APATTERSON, don't take ROR's posts the wrong way, he's very sympathetic towards any of the employees of the dealers who've hit hard times and I know that for certain.

If you've been caught up in this mess, share your story here. I hope things aren't too bad.

As another note - personal abuse isn't tolerated here, so if you do decide to keep contributing, please keep it civil.

Thanks,

Willowz78

This is from the Indo website, gives an idea of some of the figures involved:

Liquidator appointed to EP Mooney


MARY CAROLAN
A provisional liquidator has been appointed by the High Court to motor sales dealership EP Mooney after being told the firm is insolvent with debts of some €22 million.
The firm operates five garages in Dublin and currently employs 95 people.

On the petition of the directors of the company, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy yesterday appointed accountant Paul McCann provisional liquidator to the motor dealer.

James Doherty, for the company, said the directors had passed a resolution earlier that morning to have the company wound up.

EP Mooney operates three dealerships on the Naas Road, Dublin, for Nissan, Volvo and Honda/Suzuki made vehicles. It also has a Nissan dealership on the Long Mile Road, Dublin, and a dealership for Hyundai, Fiat, Opel, Chevrolet at Airton Road, Tallaght.

As well as being engaged in the sale of cars, the company also sells spare parts and has workshops, Mr Doherty said.

The court heard the firm has an excess of liabilities over assets of €22 million. Its gross revenue had fallen from €63 million in 2007 to €60 million in 2008 and was €42 million to the end of October last.

The firm incurred losses of €828,000 in 2007 with that figure increasing to €8.7 million in 2008. After a cost-cutting plan was put in place, a loss of €3.6 million was recorded for the first 10 months of this year. The shareholders of the firm are Paraic Mooney, who has more than 90 per cent of the shares, and EP Mooney & Co Ltd.

The company has more than 700 cars in stock at the five premises plus a significant level of spare parts, plant and machinery.

In an affidavit, Mr Mooney said the company’s difficulties have been caused by the current economic climate; government changes to vehicle registration tax which had impacted on spending on used cars; and reduced financing being made available to dealers and customers.

Other adverse factors included customers buying cars in Northern Ireland due to falling Sterling and restrictions on vehicle stocking finance resulting in inceased VAT payments.

He said various cost cutting mesasures, including reductions in staff numbers, pay cuts of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent and closure of a dealership in Finglas and showrooms in Newbridge and Greenhills, Tallaght, had achieved a 60 per cent reduction in overheads.

Despite such measures, the company’s performance had continued to deteriorate and he did not believe it would be possible to reverse the decline, Mr Mooney said.

CharlieCroker

Willowz78 wrote: »

Autoplatz was part of the Belgard Motor Group which closed last week.

Autoplatz are NOT part of the Belgard Motor Group.

I used to work for Autoplatz. They closed their Dublin branch but the Cashel branch is still open.

The company is independant and is owned by a guy called James O'Reilly. Thay are still in business and dont need people saying they're part of a company thats gone out of business. Its hard enough for garages to keep going without people making false/incorrect comments about them.