Niall McGarry blazed a digital trail with Joe.ie. Too much reliance on debt has led to UK investors taking control

Joe.ie, the ambitious Irish digital media venture, has passed out of Irish ownership to management by a UK plc that until recently was involved in stem cell research. It’s an unfortunate outcome for a national trailblazer, though another Irish media asset that changed hands recently will still be controlled in Dublin.

Joe Media, the UK subsidiary of Joe.ie parent company Maximum Media Network, was acquired out of administration by Greencastle Capital, where the principal is David Sefton. Greencastle has also acquired MMN’s business in Ireland, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission waved the deal through.

Company filings indicate that Greencastle secured control of the Joe business for an investment of €300,000 and an undertaking to assume certain debts. Funding for the takeover is being provided by the BPC Ireland Lending fund managed by Beach Point Capital.

In 2005, Sefton founded Linton Capital, which provides funding and consultancy services, primarily in the oil and gas exploration space. Last year his interest turned to AIM-listed WideCells Group, a loss-making venture in stem cell research and insurance that booked a loss of £6.3m in the 18 months to June 2019.

Sefton took control of WideCells in February 2019 and pivoted the plc to digital media. The venture was renamed Iconic Labs and made its first acquisition in September 2019, the intellectual property of Gay Star News. This was picked up for £33,000 and Iconic Labs’ turnover for H2 2019 was £2,500.

In Association with

Unilad Heritage

Sefton is no longer chairman of Iconic Labs and he has delegated to Iconic Labs the management and development of the Joe platforms. The experienced digital media people at the Iconic helm are directors Liam Harrington and John Quinlan. Harrington was in charge at Unilad, one of the UK’s most popular destinations for UK lads, until it when into administration in 2018.

Founded by Niall McGarry in 2010, Joe is also lads-focused across multiple digital platforms, majoring in tech, sport, casual news and entertainment for the 18-30 age cohort. There’s also a sister site for the female demographic, Her.ie. McGarry cleverly used video, podcasts and live events to provide advertisers with a range of branded content opportunities.

McGarry expanded into the UK with Joe in 2015 and found rapid traction, growing to multiple websites that focus on sports, lifestyle, politics and family.

Expansion was funded through €3.1m equity from EIIS investors and €3.9m debt finance from BMS Finance, with a 12% interest coupon, according to filed accounts for 2018. Turnover that year was €6m, the company booked a loss of €1m, and year-end liabilities amounted to €9.7m.

The company had a setback in 2019 when it emerged that ‘click farms’ had been used to inflate listenership for an AIB-sponsored podcast. This dented advertising support for a while and then came the pandemic. BMS Finance took fright and in May 2020 went to court to secure the appointment of an examiner.

Brands Potential

Harrington stated that he see potential for developing the Her brand’s bridal and wedding credentials. If so, Iconic Labs will be up against a much larger player in the form of DMG Media.

The publisher of the Irish Daily Mail recently acquired OneFabDay.com from founders Naoise McNally and Susan Gallagher. The business has c.300 advertising clients, does a good trade in sponsored content and claims 164,000 Pinterest followers.

DMG chief executive Paul Henderson commented: “OneFabDay is an iconic brand and the addition of Ireland’s premier wedding site to our portfolio means that we now reach over 90% of Irish women through all life stages and through their most important life events.”

Greencastle Capital says that the company that operates the brands are to be renamed as Joe Media and Her Media. According to Liam Harrington, chief business officer of Iconic Labs: “This is a new beginning and the start of something special for the Joe and Her brands in Ireland. We are hugely excited by this fresh start for both brands.

“Joe and Her have always had brand presence, audience and creativity. It is important though that we enhance these attributes through strong partner relationships and a relentless focus on client service, not least through our capabilities in data and insight and creating real value for the brands we work with.”

Greencastle capital partner Paul O’Donohoe added: “We can now fully integrate Joe’s UK and Irish operations, with the headquarters of the overall business now being based in Dublin.

“We believe in running the business profitably and doing so is the only way we can achieve a position of strength as a company to develop the ancillary opportunity areas that we foresee. Our plan is to make the necessary investment and deploy the best management team to ensure we realise this vision.”

Photo: Liam Harrington (left) and Paul O’Donohoe