Rathwood ends ‘working relationship’ with brothers formerly behind business

The new owner of troubled retailer Rathwood has ended its working relationship with the brothers who ran the business before it entered examinership, days after internal messages revealed their continued involvement in its operations.

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Give them no hope, only 3 days a week or €5,000

Evergreen Home & Garden Holdings said on Monday that its relationship with James and Thomas Keogh was over. The company said the Keogh family had provided information and operational assistance during a transitional period after Evergreen acquired Rathwood, but “that transition has now ended.”

The move followed reports that the brothers remained in regular contact with the new owners until late last week and discussed day-to-day decisions. Messages showed them weighing which employees should remain, how staff might be let go, and how creditors and the business should be managed after Rathwood’s dramatic decline.

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NO hope of the big pay-off

In one exchange, James Keogh described a €5,000 redundancy package as a “clever” move. “Give them no hope, only 3 days a week or €5,000,” he wrote, suggesting employees might leave if they knew there was “NO hope of the big pay-off”. In another message, he rejected a proposal to include local market and craft stalls in Rathwood’s Christmas experience, calling the stalls a “waste of time and never pay” and describing “craft people” as “painful”. He also said employees were “scared” of the new chief executive, “which is ideal”.

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a waste of time and never pay

The High Court approved the €750,000 rescue scheme in July, allowing Kevin Nolan and his Evergreen consortium to buy the operation. Customers and other creditors were promised refunds of only 0.25 per cent. Confirming the scheme, Judge Rory Mulcahy said the way Rathwood had been managed before examinership remained a “significant concern” and noted liabilities of more than €21 million. Lawyers for the Keogh family directors told the court that James and Thomas Keogh would not act as company directors for five years. Nolan previously said drawing on the inherited management team’s knowledge had been “necessary and commercially sensible” during the transition.

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necessary and commercially sensible