The troubled AliSuper business which now has sold its stores to a variety of competitors, including Spar, has come under government attack in a State-led assurance that workers’ rights will be protected.
The chain was purchased in March 2012 for €26 million by the Nogueira Group, after Alisuper had run into deep financial trouble.
The company, under the Nogueira Group’s ownership, filed for insolvency leaving hundreds of employees owed wages and holiday pay.
The stress of this financial complication is nothing when compared to that of around 100 employees who signed up for a €1 million financing round in 2007 as they are left owing the money to creditors.
The Bloquistas have demanded of the Ministry of the Economy that workers are not left insolvent and received a guarantee that it would use all legal and financial means within the law if workers were left unpaid.
The 100 workers signing up for the loan guarantee now say they were pressured into signing the deal and that they had received assurance from Nogueira Group in 2012 that the loan now was the responsibility of the company, not the workers.
At the end of 2015, Alisuper started a Special Revitalization Process to try to negotiate debts with creditors but in January this year, after meetings with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Montepio and Caixa do Crédito Agrícola Mútuo de Tábua e Douro, it was clear that there was no hope of trading out of trouble and the banks decided that Alisuper should be broken up and sold off.
According to the administrator appointed to manage the process, Pedro Correia, Alisuper was "no longer able to fulfil its obligations," including paying the company’s staff.
The administrator now has other ideas about the €1 million loan and aims to call in the guarantee to clear part of the enormous debt the company built up under Nogueria Group’s management
In March this year, Alisuper’s new owner was faced with a €17 million debt of which €14 million was owed to banks. The company collapsed and an administrator was appointed.
