Sangs founder lambasts bank Allied Irish after company is sold to Cott Beverages
The founder of soft drink manufacturer Sangs, which produces MacB Water and Devon Spring, Kenny Webster, has criticised Allied Irish, which placed the company into administration, only for it to be bought today by US firm Cott Beverages.
Said Webster upon hearing the news of the sale; “I am absolutely gutted at the way in which I’ve been treated by Allied Irish. I’ve always maintained that Sangs was a company in profit, in growth, with no cash flow issue. We never defaulted on a loan interest or supplier payment and we received no notice of administration from the bank. Despite me taking this to the highest level, they still haven’t answered why they took such terrible action without warning and without even a conversation.
"I poured my heart and soul into that business – as a born-and-bred Scot, I did my very best to build a growing, successful company in the North-East. Securing and creating jobs in that area of the country was very important to me and I don’t believe that any other organisation will feel as passionately about that as I did.
"The bank and their administrators have in recent days have tried to undermine everything that was achieved by highlighting the debt that the company was in – loans that Allied Irish had agreed to and loans that we had succeeded in repaying significantly (£3.4m) over just four and a half years. I also have a guarantee for £1m that AIB called in so the debt is less. This was the inter company guarantee. I’d like to stress that we were continuing to adhere to a payment plan that was drawn up in partnership with the bank."
"This has been the most awful experience of my life and, in my opinion, Allied Irish are the worst example of a tyrannical banking system that continues to run riot to the detriment of ordinary people," he concluded.
Macb agreed to 'a six figure' shirt sponsor for Scottish football team Partick Thistle for this season, which ended upon the company's administration. McCrea Financial Services has taken up sponsorship of the team for the rest of the season.