When dominoes begin to tumble, they do so with increasing acceleration. The story of JACC Distributors and the FAI began on Monday with a morning email from FAI Chair Roy Barrett ending the relationship with immediate effect.
JACC Distributors, who had supplied kit to the FAI since 1994 hit back saying the action was rejected and that it was heading to the courts.
The trigger had been pulled though and as the smoke cleared other players came to the fore in public with a company called Deal Partners Logistics Limited petitioning the High Court to appoint a provisional liquidator to the company.
The application was adjourned yesterday and will be heard today, at which point more of the financial challenges facing the company will become known.
Deal Partners provides financing which effectively covers a company’s cash flow in exchange for an at times significant slice of the payment. It is not unusual and does allow for a more even cash flow which can often be the undoing of even the best run companies.
In this case, though it appears that a number of scheduled payments from JACC Distributors have been missed over the last number of months.
Stock continued to be built up, presumably in advance of the lucrative Christmas market and it is that stock which will be central now to any dispersal of assets should the petition for a liquidation go through. That is not a given yet though as Sport for Business understands that there is value in a number of properties in the ownership of the company.
In documents submitted to the court, it was suggested that Deal Partners is owed in the region of €7.5 million and that the company also owes €3 million to Ulster Bank and €2.5 million to the revenue.
Debt is part of the cut and thrust of business. The debate will centre now on whether the company is in a solvent position to service that debt.
JACC Distributors supplies kit to the FAI under its license with Umbro. It remains to be seen whether a winding-up order will release Umbro from its partnership and allow it to deal directly with the FAI or if a new supplier will need to be found.
The FAI is between a rock and a hard place on this. The Christmas market and the success of the Women’s National Team looked like a very positive alignmnet of the stars which could have generated significant financial revenue but also a ‘lock-in’ of young fans looking to be part of this wave of support.
The FAI’s newly appointed Commercial Director Sean Kavanagh is a veteran of the kit market having held senior positions with Canterbury and Puma over the past two decades. he may need to dive into his old world, depending on what happens today.
The impact will be hardest though on JACC Distributors, its CEO Jonathan Courtenay, and its 30 staff in west Dublin.
Courtenay’s father John, who passed away in 2020, had been the original link between Umbro and the FAI and had been embedded within many of the kit deals that ran through Irish team wear over the nineties, noughties, and to more recent times.
The business today has deals with a number of major brands including Nike’s teamwear division as well as with Connacht Rugby, Elvery’s, and a host of League of Ireland football clubs. It also has the license to distribute New Era caps, the NFL, Football and other sports ones that are such a part of our modern sportswear culture.
Whether it survives will now be in the hands of the courts and we will follow this tale as it continues.
