An e-commerce company co-owned by celebrity consumer advocate Eddie Hobbs has reported accumulated losses of more than €680,000 in accounts just filed to the Companies Office.
Mr Hobbs (53) is a shareholder and director of Treatdrop Limited, which is an online coupon creation and distribution business. He is also listed as its chief financial officer on the company's website.
Losses at the firm increased by €29,367 last year and stood at €681,679 at the end of 2015, according to the latest accounts. The company owed €288,689 to its creditors and had a cash balance of €62,122 on 31 December last.
Treatdrop Ltd has two directors: Mr Hobbs and 36-year-old web entrepreneur, Paul Shiels. The accounts show that one of the directors is employed by the firm and was paid remuneration of €56,647 last year.
Mr Shiels is described as the co-founder, chief executive and chief engineer of the company on its website. The Dublin-based entrepreneur holds about 39 per cent of the company’s shares.
A further 39 per cent of the shares are co-owned by Mr Hobbs and his wife, Mary Feehily-Hobbs; while the author and financial adviser also co-owns an additional 1.5 per cent of the company with two other parties.
Online platform
Treatdrop Ltd was set up in September, 2012 with the aim of designing and operating an online platform that enables consumers to purchase vouchers for goods and services globally, according to company documents.
The firm’s website states that the online platform has been built by “a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and developers from the payment, marketing, technology and mobile industries”.
These include Mr Hobbs, Mr Shiels and Danuta Gray, the former chief executive of mobile communications giant, Telefonica O2.
The newly filed accounts for Treatdrop Ltd show that the €288,689 owed to creditors of the firm include €10,298 in relation to taxation and €5,093 in respect of bank loans and overdrafts. Mr Hobbs is owed €126,850 by the company.
