There were fears last weekend that hotels which come under the Dunne umbrella, including the Two Mile Inn and Patrick Punch's, could face closure as the company petitioned the High Court to be placed into examinership.
The petition means that a H
igh Court-appointed examiner will now attempt to devise a financial rescue plan for the Dunne Group, which made a pre-tax loss of €1.1m in 2006.
However a spokesman for the group said this week that, thanks in large part to a franchise agreement with Ramada Hotels, the future of Dunne Group Hotels should be safe.
"We heard all the rumours as much as everyone else but the fact is 93 per cent of companies that go into receivership manage to recover. The High Court has validated our business plan by allowing us go into examinership and that was helped by the fact that we have a solid business plan which includes a 20-year franchise agreement with Ramada," said Christy Power, Commercial Director of the Dunne Group.
The franchise agreement will see all Dunne hotels coming under the Ramada branding.
"The High Court wouldn't have granted us examinership if we didn't have the core fundamental structures in place to ensure that the hotels could continues to run as profit-making businesses for many years to come, which I am convinced they will," added Mr Power.
The Dunne Group also owns the Shannon Shamrock in Bunratty, Murphy Brown's pub in Shannon which closed recently; the Woodstock Hotel in Ennis and the Clybaun Hotel in Galway.
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